Shark Attack!
by hippielicious
Summary: While the Host Club are at the beach, Mori and Hunny see something floating in the water. A person. After Mori rescues her, they find themselves falling in love. But, will her depression, dark past, and recent near-drowning ruin the love before it starts?
1. Chapter 1

I had decided to take one last walk on the beach with Mitsukini before we left Kyoya's private beach for summer vacation. I was happy that Tamaki and Haruhi had made up. Seeing other people angry with each other unsettled me. A question from Mitsukini interrupted my thoughts.

"Takashi, what's that?" he asked. He was pointing to something that was floating in the ocean about one hundred meters away. I was much taller, so I was able to see that the thing floating in the ocean… was human.

"Mitsukini, get help," were my orders as I sprinted to the ocean to get whoever was out there onto shore. Each stroke took me two meters closer to the person who was stranded there. As I was bringing the body to shore, I was only vaguely aware that the person I had rescued was a girl… and she had no clothes on.

I artfully performed CPR on her until she coughed up what seemed like buckets of seawater. Quickly, I picked her cold form up from the freezing sand that hadn't warmed up yet because it was long before noon. There was blood all over both of us that had leaked from her arm, which was so covered in the red liquid that you couldn't even see where it was coming from. Using my shirt, I compressed the wound as expertly as you could expect from any teenager. Professional medical practitioners were racing towards us when I happened looked down at the weak human being I was holding and saw her eyelids open to reveal a beautiful, but sad pair of azure blue eyes.

After that, everything moved quickly on Kyoya's private beach. I was being asked countless numbers of questions: where did you find her, had she been breathing, what time was it, etc. I personally found the entire experience extremely tiring, and all I really wanted to do was look after her to make sure she was all right, that wound had looked absolutely awful.

"Mori-senpai," called Kyoya, interrupting my melancholy. I turned to find Kyoya a meter behind me. "I have both good news and bad news. I'll start with the good because it is the most useful to us. We think her name is Heza Isenroff: and American whose ship sank two days ago. Though, she also might be Kohaku Isenroff, so we'll have to ask her as soon as she wakes up."

"The bad news?" I asked. A surprisingly long sentence for me to utter, but I was extremely worried about her. She had become mine to protect and to accompany now that I had saved her life.

"Her entire family is dead. She's the only one that they didn't find at the bottom of the ocean, lifeless. I'm assuming that she will be quite depressed for some time, slowing the healing process. She was floating in the ocean for two days, and she is dehydrated, exhausted, hungry, and, most importantly, weak from blood loss. We have to give her a transfusion soon."

"I'll donate."

"What?"

"I'll donate, Kyoya."

"We have to figure out what her blood type is first, but if you are determined to donate and you two have compatible blood types, then go ahead."

We half-jogged to the room where she was being worked on and I saw his medical staff hooking her up to an IV and cleaning her arm up.

"Her arm?" I asked.

"She was attacked by a shark while she was swimming towards shore, probably not far from where you found her. It was most likely from the blood loss that she passed out, and, eventually, almost drowned. Based on the bite marks, it was a rather large Tiger Shark- about 5.2 meters, or 17 feet. Definitely larger than the average tiger shark; she's lucky to have survived- especially when she had so little energy. Ah, it seems they're ready to test you for the transfusion."

Her blood type was AB, so she could take blood from anyone here. Tamaki wanted to swoop in and play the night in shining armor, but Kyoya quickly distracted him. As it turned out, she needed more than just my blood. Haruhi donated some of hers, to Tamaki's discontent, and even Kyoya gave some when he thought that no one was looking.

And me? I was content just to observe her pale skin get a slight flush to it from all the new blood, and to watch as her vital signs grew stronger and stronger. Mitsukini often joined me and jabbered away about how we were going to be such good friends with this girl.

One day, as I was watching her alone, she woke up. At first she just lay there. But then, after five minutes, she sat up and asked something in another language – English, I assumed. I didn't answer her because I had no idea what she had said.

Suddenly, cognition formed on her features and she asked, in Japanese, "Is anyone here?"

Could she not see me here, sitting at the foot of her bed, staring at her intently?

"Hello?" she called.

"Can you see me?" I questioned quietly.

And then she gave her heart-crushing answer: No.


	2. Chapter 2

Why was the guy with the deep voice freaking out so much? I sweat-dropped when he brought someone else into the room.

"So, Miss Isenroff," said a completely different voice. This voice was much higher and smoother than the last one. "Having vision troubles are we?"

"Nothing more than the usual."

"Ah Mori-senpai, it would appear that we have nothing to worry about. Miss Isenroff merely has poor vision. I have ordered some contact lenses for her that should be arriving any day now." I could practically hear the smirk on this new guy's face.

"Umm… how do you know I have poor vision?"

"Well, you did wash up on my private beach after all. I think I have some right to know a little bit about you. Your school picture shows Heza Isenroff with glasses. Of course, I don't know if Kohaku needs glasses or not, so it was just a hunch. Which brings us to your identification. Are you Heza, or Kohaku?"

"Heza."

"Heza, are you aware that your entire family is ?" asked the new guy.

"I'm quite aware." I felt my face fall.

It was then when all hell broke loose.

"DADDY IS SO HAPPY THAT HIS DARLING DAUGHTER IS ALIVE!!!"

"What the hell?" I said. Another guy who had one very annoying voice in my opinion had squeezed me into a very painful and tight hug.

"Tamaki, please do not attack our guest," said the now normal-seeming guy. Hmm. The guy with the deep voice was being very quiet.. "And besides, you might scare her. She couldn't see you coming because of her poor vision."

"I was just giving our beloved daughter a warm and fatherly hug mom!" cried Tamaki. He then seemed to hear the last part of 'mom's' sentence and said, "Oh no! Our lovely daughter has terrible vision! Tell me it isn't so mommy! It's all your fault! Our daughter inherited your awful vision!"

"Who are you calling your daughter? My parents, and entire family for that matter, are ," I told him with an extremely lifeless voice.

"You're being insensitive senpai," said yet another voice. This one was different though; it was in-between feminine and masculine. I couldn't tell if they were a boy or a . "She doesn't want us to be her family right now, when she's just lost hers." Whoever they were seemed to be addressing me in the next sentence. "I'm sorry for all the commotion. What's your name?"

"Heza."

"It's nice to meet you Heza, I'm Haruhi."

Suddenly, I felt the urge to have them call me by my actual name. "Haruhi?"

"Yes?"

"Um… could you and everyone else call me Heather? I mean, I don't call you by some Americanized version of your names just because it would be easier for me to say."

"Sure, no problem… um… Heather." It felt nice to hear my actual name, even though she had trouble saying it.

"THERE IS NOTHING INSENSITIVE ABOUT LETTING HEATHER HAVE ANOTHER FAMILY!" shrieked Tamaki. "Now she has a mom, a dad, two brothers, and a sister! She should be happy. Oh, I almost forgot, and neighbors too!"

"Umm… Haruhi, other dude who knew I needed glasses, and dude with deep voice? I have no idea what this drama queen is talking about."

"Senpai fantasizes that everyone in our club is part of one big family. He's the dad, Kyoya's the mom, apparently you and I are his daughters, and the twins are his sons. And now, apparently, Hunny and Mori are our neighbors. His delusions never cease to amaze and annoy me," said Haruhi.

"Heza?"

"Isenroff?" rang two oddly familiar voices.

"We," said One.

"Remember," said the other.

"You," they said simultaneously.

"Do you?" said One again.

"Remember?" said Two again.

"Us?" They asked.

"Well," I said. "You're voices sound familiar. But, I can't see your faces." The two new boys leaned in and I almost instantly recognized them. The Hitachiin brothers. "Yes," I answered. "You two are Hikaru and Kouru Hitachiin."

**Author's Note: Hello those of you who are currently reading this fanfic! Now, I am proud to say, having just published this story yesterday, that I already have three reviews (positive), one story alert, and three favorite stories! *CHEER* Now, I am currently working on multiple fanfictions right now, and the ones that get the most reviews, story alerts, and so on, get updated the fastest. So, if you want to see what happens next in Shark Attack!, then review, review, review! hippielicious**


	3. Chapter 3

**Mori**

"Awww. She remembers us Hikaru!" cooed Kouru.

"So it would seem Kouru," agreed Hikaru.

"You know Hikaru and Kouru?" cried Tamaki, Haruhi, and Mitsukini. Even Kyoya looked surprised at the news.

"Okay, how many people are in here? It seems that every second someone new joins the conversation and it's confusing me," Heather whined. Her high little voice penetrating our thoughts.

Nobody acted as if they were going to answer Heather's question, so I answered. "Seven."

"And nobody else is going to come in?"

"No."

"So, Miss Isenroff, how is it that you came to know Hikaru and Kouru?" asked Kyoya.

"Well, I used to know them. I haven't seen them in a long time – since I moved away from Japan."

"Ah yes, your family moved here shortly after you were born and you moved back to America right before you started Kindergarten there. But, that still doesn't answer how you know the twins. After all, they're extremely wealthy, and you are just a commoner."

"My mother worked as a maid in the Hitachiin's mansion while we lived in Japan, and their mother offered to pay for me and my sister to go to the same fancy preschool that her sons went to. There, I met Hikaru and Kouru."

"By the way," they said. "What happened to your hair? It was black when we knew you."

"When I knew you two, I had my hair dyed." She answered, though by the sound of her voice, it seemed like she wanted to close the subject. It sounded strange though, for a preschooler to have dyed hair. I couldn't imagine why any preschooler would _want_ their hair dyed.

"Why? You look good with blonde hair," they persisted.

"I have my reasons." Now she had completely closed the subject.

"So, you knew Hika-chan and Kou-chan in preschool?" Mitsukini asked. "I remember they were distant from other kids in preschool."

"Yeah, well, I could tell them apart. And, since I could do that, it pretty much guaranteed instant friendship."

"You could? How? Haru-chan says that Hika-chan comes off as eviler than Kou-chan. Is that how you tell them apart?"

"No, not at all. For me, it's their voices. They're voices are completely different and I can even tell them apart when they speak simultaneously."

"Wow! That's so cool Heather-chan!" Mitsukini had accepted her already into his heart.

"Now," announced Kyoya. "I think Miss Isenroff has had more than enough excitement for the time being. Let's go kids."

"Wait, we're not done playing with Heza yet!" yelled the twins.

"Just a second," said Hikaru. "We'll be back later Heza. Your hair sucks right now."

"Hikaru, can't you cut me some slack, I've been drifting in the ocean for days, and then lying in a hospital bed."

"Just the same," finished Kouru. "We're going to cut your hair the next time we're in here."

Heather seemed to grimace at the thought of them getting near her head with a sharp object.

"Goodbye my most beauteous flower of a daughter! Daddy will be back later to dote upon you even more! I will also keep your doppelganger brothers from sexually harassing you." With that, Tamaki left with the twins and Kyoya.

"This bunch will take some getting used to, but they're not so bad once you get to know them," assured Haruhi as she too left.

"We'll have some cake later Heather-chan!" cheered Mitsukini as he bounced out of the room.

"Cake?" Heather whispered. I couldn't imagine how overwhelming it must be to have to deal with this after losing your entire family. Dealing with Tamaki, and meeting the twins after not seeing them for so long. That, on top of not being able to see, must be extremely stressful.

"I'm sorry about your family," I told her.

"So, you did actually talk earlier. I had assumed that it had been an illusion."

"Are you going to be okay?"

"Yeah, when you're just swimming out there, it's either think about the fact that your entire family has drowned, or you could think about the absolute danger you're in. Be it the fact that land is so far away, that you might encounter a dangerous sea animal, you could drown at any given minute, or maybe you could think about how tired, hungry, and thirsty you are. At times, I welcomed the memory that my family had died, as a break from thinking about the situation I was currently in. But, my situation helped me deal with my grief faster. I have done my mourning. And now, I'm done crying – I did my crying the two days I was out there. I don't have any more tears." When she talked about being done mourning, it didn't sound true. It sounded like she was just trying to be brave. Though, I had to admit, her act was very convincing.

"By the way um…Mori…you, Haruhi, and Kyoya seem like the only sane people around here, so um…try to stick around, okay?"

I smiled. "Yeah."


	4. Chapter 4

**Heather**

I woke up again only to find that I still couldn't see. I sighed.

"You're up," stated a deep voice. Mori.

"Yeah."

"Miss Isenroff!" sang some cheery female voices. Nurses maybe? "We're here to help you shower!" Definitely nurses. I sighed again and let them lead me to the surprisingly large bathroom that was attached to my room.

I simply ignored the fact that I was being seen naked while I showered. It was something unavoidable while I was here, and I needed a shower so bad, that I almost didn't care. And besides, it's not like they were male nurses.

No matter how hard I tried, it seemed that the nest of tangles that was my hair would not be undone, so I stepped out of the shower – defeated. Besides, it wasn't exactly easy to maneuver around the pole that held my IV bag and I didn't want to tug at the needle in my wrist.

It was only when I began to dry myself off that I noticed how bad the scarring on my arm was. I was secretly delighted that I would be able to boast fighting off a tiger shark when I got home, with the scars as proof.

As soon as I was out the bathroom door I was attacked by a pair of scissors.

"Everyone out!" they called. "Makeover in progress!" They sat me down in a chair and began snipping around the tangles. I know this would sound weird to anyone besides myself, but even though I had only known Hikaru and Kouru when I was small, and only for a couple of years, I still trusted them – with a pair of scissors at least.

When they were done, they shouted in unison, "You look gorgeous!"

"We saw your recent yearbook picture," started Kouru.

"And the way you wore your hair was atrocious!" finished Hikaru. "And your glasses were completely ugly."

Kouru sounded very pleased with himself. "We obviously had to cut away all those tangles, and then we cut your hair to accentuate your face and to make you look thinner." Were they saying I looked fat?

Hikaru began to assess his work right after Kouru. "Then, of course, we wanted to bring out your blue eyes, so we cut you two long strips of bangs that curve around your face and go only to about your chin." He held a mirror up to my face, and to my surprise, I loved my haircut. My mom, and Amber, and little Rosie had always said that I shouldn't wear my hair so boring and now I realized that I should have listened to them. I looked _awesome_.

"We know we're amazing!" the two doppelgangers announced.

I smiled. "Thanks." Then, they did some weird symmetry thing while they each gave me a peck on the cheek on either side of me. I stood up and gave them a hug. Part of it was a physical way to thank them, and then there was the fact that I really needed a hug right now. All of my family members were on the other side of the world and had only recently been told that I wasn't dead. None of them could afford plane tickets to Japan, so that left me alone. It seemed that, for now, the boys and Haruhi would have to be here on my family's behalf.

I stepped back into my room and I heard a low audible gasp that could only come from one person: Mori. Happily, I noticed that the gasp was appreciative. I had spent a short amount of time in his company and had grown comfortable around him.

"WOW YOU LOOK SO GOOD! AMAZINGLY GOOD! WHO WOULD KNOW THAT YOU WERE THE SAME PERSON THAT YOU WERE WHEN I SAW YOU LAST? YOU CLEAN UP SUPER GOOD MY BENEVOLENT DAUGHTER! DADDY LOVES YOU SO MUCH!"

"Stop harassing her, Tamaki," the twins said.

"I'M NOT HARRASSING ANYONE!" he cried. "I am simply trying to be a loving and supportive father. And besides, the haircut really does look excellent on her."

"Well, I think I should formally introduce myself. My name is Heather Isenroff. It's nice to meet all of you." I was still blind as a bat, so all I could see was the entire room blurred together with no individuals standing out from the background.

I heard a stampede of footsteps coming at me and I heard Tamaki's annoying voice spewing more noise. "My name is Tamaki Suoh and the pleasure is all mine, my princess."

My voice was dull and dubious. "Princess?"

"All women are princesses! Each woman is her own type of lovely flower either blooming or waiting to bloom. And to have a woman's love is like everlasting summer."

"I like winter better than summer, I'm allergic to a few flowers, and I am _not_ a princess."

Tamaki didn't hear a word I said. "I have made up my mind! We are going to be your adoptive family from now on! You shall refer to me as your father!"

"No, thanks. Is anyone else going to talk or do I have this constant roar in my ear." After that, I could hear Tamaki quietly crying in the corner.

"Ha ha ha ha ha!" the twins laughed.

"We've only known two other women who are able to resist milord's charm as well as you can," said Kouru.

"One of them is Haruhi over there," finished Hikaru.

"As you know, we are Hikaru and Kouru Hitachiin," they said.

"Hmmm," I mused and I was about to think of something really good when Haruhi interrupted my train of thought.

"Hi, I'm Haruhi Fujioka and I'm really glad that you're not dead."

"I'm sorry if my arrival has caused anyone here any trouble. Even Tamaki."

"It isn't your fault. And besides, it's summer vacation, so none of us have homework to worry about. And I've found a little time to study here."

"Hey Heather-chan! Do you wanna eat some cake with me," sang an extremely childish voice.

"Ummm, I'm not so sure," I answered.

"Why?" I could hear the tears in their eyes.

"Misukini," I heard a deep voice interrupt. "Heather is still trying to recover from a very traumatic and exhausting experience. She needs food that is high in nutrients." It was Mori. I heard my heart stutter a little bit and it was then that I knew that I might have a crush on him. I saw the blur that was in the general direction from where his voice came and sit down on a chair near me. It must have been Mori, so I mouthed 'thank you' at him.

"I'm Mitsukini Haninozuka, but you can call me Hunny. And, it's okay that you can't eat cake with me now, so you can eat cake with me when you feel all better. Okay?" I nodded at him. "By the way Heather-chan, how long have you been speaking Japanese? 'Cause you're really good at it for a second language."

"I spent my first few years of life here, so I spoke just as much Japanese as English when I moved to America, so I knew a little before I started really speaking the language in earnest this year." This little boy was so cute! I wondered why he was hanging around these highschoolers… Wait! _Mitsukini_ Haninozuka? Was he the famous karate champion? So, that would mean this boy was in high school. "Wow, you guys have quite the range of famous and rich names."

"Well, we all go to the same private high school, so it shouldn't be that surprising," the twins stated. "Everyone but Haruhi is in the school because they're rich."

"How did Haruhi get in?" I asked.

"She has an academic scholarship!" enthused Hunny. I nodded to show I understood.

"I'm Takashi Morinozuka. Mori." Wow, he had such an amazingly deep voice. If he were an instrument, he would be a bass for an orchestra for sure.

"Takashi's holding his hand out for you Heather," Hunny said.

"Oh!" I stuck my hand into his and his quickly swallowed mine up with its size.

"Nice to meet you."

"And I am Kyoya Ohtori," Kyoya added. "Now, if you would all step out for a minute, the doctor would like to check her vitals."

"Awwww," cried the twins. "But we wanted to see Heather make the boss cry some more!" But, despite their unhappiness, Kyoya managed to herd everyone out.

A doctor came in and was looking at the machines that were surrounding me and checking on everything.

"So, Miss Isenroff, why is it Mori found you naked?" asked Kyoya.

"Well, I had to slip my clothes off because they were weighing me down, and my underwear came off while I was fighting the shark."

"I see." I could hear the sound of pen against paper as he wrote something down.

"Kyoya?" I asked.

"Yes?"

"How likely is it that I'll get an infection?"

"Almost inevitable."

"And how bad will it be?"

"Impossible to say, but it could get nasty."


	5. Chapter 5

"I'm sorry," Kyoya said. "Your contact lenses haven't arrived yet. Oh, and please don't fret about getting an infection. My staff here are well trained, and highly professional, so you really have nothing to worry about."

"I don't mind the, um, how did you say that in Japanese?"

"Contacts?"

"Yes, contacts. I don't mind them being late."

"Heather, you've recently lost your parents so I think it would be good for you if you saw some kind of grief counselor."

"I'd really rather not."

"Heather," he sighed. "It does you no good to bottle up your feelings –"

"I'm fine. I know how to deal with my own mind."

"Have it your own way. By the way, in these kinds of situations, it's not uncommon for the mind to forget some things that you used to be good at." I _had_ forgotten how to do something, but I didn't want to relearn how to do it.

"I haven't forgotten anything."

"You have quite a bit of skill, it would be a shame to waste it. _I _would find your skill useful. Anyway, it does you no good to lie to me: I can always tell when someone is being less than truthful."

"I waste _my own_ time by using that skill. Drop it."

"As you wish."

I dropped my head. "Thank you Kyoya," I whispered.

"Master Kyoya," the doctor interrupted. "Miss Isenroff can have her IV removed if she'll eat something."

Kyoya really was very kind. He didn't have to treat me this nicely, and he definitely didn't have to let me stay here, at his private beach house. He could've sent me to any hospital, but he kept me here. "Heather?"

"I'd love to have my needle removed."

I spent countless numbers of hours in the company of Mori. After the doctor had left, Mori had come in and sat down in the chair by my bed, and we talked. Well, I did most of the talking, but I had a feeling that this was the most he had said to someone in a while. Once, he even gave me an entire sentence as an answer. For someone else, this may have meant nothing, but for Mori, this was significant. I began to hope that he was opening up to me. I also realized that our relationship could become more romantic – a thought that make my skin tingle. I had never loved anyone before and it felt amazingly good to think about normal teenage girl trivial matters. Whether it was a crush or not didn't matter to me. I wanted to love him, and that was all that mattered.

"Mori?" I asked.

"Ah."

"What's your family like? Do you have any siblings?"

"Well – "

"HEATHER HEATHER HEATHER HEATHER HEATHER!!! IT IS SO WONDERFUL TO SEE YOU MY MOST BEUTEOUS DAUGHTER!! Daddy would like to spend some time with you and I also bring some terrific news for my foreign daughter. Your contacts have arrived!" You guessed it: Tamaki. He and the others had also visited me during the time I had been here. Tamaki really was an okay guy. In small doses.

"Here," said the twins. "Now you won't have to wear those awful glasses." I blushed.

"Hey, they were on sale. And besides, for every frame that was purchased, they planted a tree."

"Tree-hugger," Hikaru teased. I took the contacts and put them in. The entire room was filled with a clarity that had me sigh with satisfaction. Being without sight for so long had been a handicap that I would rather have not had.

I decided to look at the twins first. "Hmmm. So you guys don't wear the exact same outfits anymore. I guess that's an improvement." When I looked at all the faces in the room I suddenly realized that every single one of these boys – and Haruhi, who looked a little bit like a boy – was devastatingly handsome in their own way. I decided that the best way to cover up the blush on my fact was to come up with some smart remark. "Wow, how much time do you guys spend on your hair in the morning?"

"There is no time limit to spend on beauty!" yelled Tamaki enthusiastically.

"I think there is," I muttered under my breath. I turned my head towards Mori.

I almost gasped. If the others were devastatingly handsome, then they were nothing compared to Mori. His face looked like an artist could have carved it. His hair was perfectly tousled, though it didn't look like it was intentionally styled that way. And his eyes, oh god, his eyes. They were like warm pools of mercury and conveyed every emotion that his voice and posture didn't.

"It's nice to finally be able to see." I gave them all the most earnest smile I've given anyone in a long time. Not having the skill I had lost was the loveliest thing that could ever have happened to me. And though I still missed my family, I pretended not to. Because after this accident, when I finally got over their deaths, maybe I could act like a normal teenager. Finally.


	6. Chapter 6

**Mori**

It was about two o'clock in the afternoon when the doctor came to check on Heather. I wasn't concerned at first. The doctors checked on Heather pretty often, and I was glad for that. Otherwise I would have gotten extremely worried. By now it was easy to tell which of her smiles were fake and which were genuine. Right now, she was genuinely smiling and her perfectly straight white teeth were dazzling me beyond what any other smile could do.

The doctor frowned when he saw some of the charts, but didn't saw anything as he checked her temperature. After he checked her temperature he drew a small amount of blood from her arm – which made her cringe – he left.

"What was that about?" she asked.

I didn't know what she was saying. "What?" I asked. Her accent was extremely thick and sometimes it took control of her speech.

"Oh. What. Was. That. About." She pronounced each word extremely carefully in hopes that I would understand her.

"I don't know, Heather."

A half hour passed and Heather's already pink face became absolutely flushed. I wasn't too concerned at first. Her face always had a tiny pink tinge to it. But, obviously, I became extremely worried when a bunch of doctors rushed in and pushed me out of the room.

It was only later that I learned that Heather had a high fever and a terrible infection.

"What!" I almost yelled.

"Heather got the infection when the shark bit her and she bled in the ocean. We're trying to figure out what kind of bacteria it is. But if we don't soon…" Concern dripped off of every word that Kyoya said.

"Kyoya. Will she live?"

"Well, if we find it in time –"

"_Kyoya. Will. She. Live?"_

"I don't know. There are countless numbers of bacteria that could have infected her and this one is proving to be really bad. She currently has a fever of 104 and it's rising. Also, that's when we're trying extremely hard to contain the fever. If it keeps up like this, she won't last through the night."

I felt weak and nauseous. Heather couldn't die. It wasn't fair. She had worked so hard to survive the sinking of the ship. And then she survived the ocean. And then she survived the shark. And then she had to deal with the death of her family. And now, she had to fight for her life again? It was beyond not fair. It was despicable. That one person should have to cope with so much in so little time was incomprehensible.

"Can I stay with her?"

"They're giving her antibiotics right now and running some tests but in half and hour you can be with her."

"Not through the night?"

"If we can't treat her."

"I care about her Kyoya."

"I know. I'm sorry. We all care about her though, Mori. And, there's not much we can do."

I sighed. "I know."

It was 4:30 p.m. when I finally got to be with Heather. I didn't talk when I was there with her. I just held her hand and stroked her hair.

As the hours went by, she began to sweat, and her breathing became labored. I stared at her and my eyes began to water with agony. It hurt me to see her in pain. The only thing that could possibly compare to this was when Mitsukini had gotten lost at Kyoya's resort. Only this was so much worse. Kyoya had all but condemned this sweet girl to death. I wished we could know each other better. That we had talked more. I didn't even know her age. At that moment, I knew that even if I could only sit next to her bed and comfort her a little, then that was something I needed to do. The helplessness I felt was so terrible that it seemed to almost literally crush me.

Beyond all miracles, she had lasted to midnight.

"Mori…don't let…me go…to sleep," she rasped. "I'm not going…to die."

"You're not going to sleep. You're going to stay with me. Right here." She nodded weakly as a response.

At around three in the morning, she had still managed to cling to life by a thread. By now, I had begun to hope that she would live. She was my Heather. The toughest person alive. Of course she would make it. Kyoya came in.

"How is she doing?"

"No change."

"It is, by all accounts, a miracle that she's lived this long. Don't get your hopes up though, Mori. But, you can still stay. Nobody's forcing you to leave. I'm keeping all the others out for your sake. We'll all help you through this when it's over. She was a strong person, but not strong enough to fight this. Don't kill yourself over this. It's not your fault. I just wish we could have found out what bacteria it was." And with that, he left the room.

All I did was keep stroking her beautiful face.

It was three thirty.

"I love you Heather. I love your laugh, your smiles – the real ones – and I love how I feel with you. I feel like a wound has been opened, but cleaned instead of infected like your wound. Stay with me, Heather. Stay with me. I've stayed with you, now you stay with me. I wish you could talk right now so I could hear your beautifully thick accent."

Four o'clock in the morning.

Her breathing was more labored than before and her heart rate was switching around erratically: too slow, then too fast and vice versa. And then, it stopped completely. I heard the machine playing that one sorrowful beep as the doctors and all my friends flooded into the room.

"No!!" I yelled. It was hard to believe I could make such a loud noise. "No, Heather you're not dead." I rushed over to her body and started performing CPR. It was a madness that took over my mind then. I went completely and utterly insane with grief. I just kept doing compressions, then breaths, and then compressions, and breaths. Over, and over, and over again. It took five doctors, the twins, Mitsukini, and Kyoya to pull me off her lifeless body.

Then I heard it. They all heard it, and all of our heads turned. Beep, beep, beep, beep. The sound of a beating heart on the heart monitor.

"That's impossible," one of the doctors said. He checked her pulse to be sure. "Unbelievable. She's alive. The CPR worked. It actually worked."

We were all ushered out of the room while the doctors worked on Heather. But then, I felt eons better than I had one minute ago. She was still alive. She was still alive. Those were the four words I kept uttering in my mind over and over and over again to help me through this.

**Author's Note: Yeah, I know this chapter is kind of choppy, but I couldn't think of any other way to represent the passage of the hours. Anyway, I know it's been longer than usual since I last updated, but I have a legitimate excuse: I was sick, then I had really hard math homework to make up, and then my computer died. I am currently working on a completely different computer. Anyway, I'll try to update again as soon as I can. Peace Out!**


	7. Chapter 7

She survived the fever. Against all odds, she had survived. After that awful night, I was nervous going to see Heather. I had told her I loved her. Whether she loved me or not remained to be seen, and I was extremely worried that she wouldn't feel the same way. At least, not now when her parents had just died.

When I stepped into the room and she saw me, she gave me the biggest grin she had given me since coming here.

"Looks like I'm a dead man walking," she joked. Even though it was a little difficult to understand her through the accent, I didn't care one bit. It was good to hear her high-pitched and almost child-like voice. Since I've always hated subtlety, I decided that I would skip right to the point.

"Heather, do you remember anything I said during your fever?"

"Nope, I was loopier than a fruit loop. I'm still feeling some of the crazy side- effects of the painkillers and the fever. I didn't even know my middle name at the time." She laughed, but I could still sense an overwhelming grief under her mask. "Is there anything I should remember from the other day?" She put on an extremely joking and sarcastic face and asked, "Wait, you didn't propose did you?" I pretended to smile, hiding the fact that she was almost dead center on her target. Though, I think she may have noticed that my smile was less than sincere. I wasn't about to tell her that I cared for her that much now. And I wouldn't announce my affection until she was _truly_ finished mourning her parents.

"We're going to be heading back to Tokyo soon, and we'd all like you to come with us. You're a part of the family now, Heather. Tamaki's new daughter."

"I'd _love_ to go back to Tokyo. I wonder how much I remember of it? Probably not much. I was only four when my family left," she sighed. "In many ways, I think I felt more at home there than I did in America. Here I've only been in Japan two weeks and I've already made seven friends. I have one friend in America." I could see a crushing loneliness in her eyes that was of an astonishing magnitude.

"That's hard to believe," I told her.

"Huh, that's what you think. This entire catastrophe has turned me into a completely new person in more ways than one. So, when are we going to Tokyo?"

"Tomorrow, if you're feeling well enough."

"I feel perfectly fine. Besides, I want to flash my new scar all over the place!" I stared her left arm, if you could call it that. There wasn't any skin there that wasn't covered in the angry pink scar tissue. It was a scar that would stay with her forever, but if she was okay with it, then I supposed it could be worse – though I still didn't understand how she could be so excited about something that most people were embarrassed about. _Maybe, _I thought,_ it's an American thing._ Though, more than likely it was a Heather thing. Another possibility was that she was proud she had fought off a 17 ft. tiger shark. That _was_ something to be proud of, and I was glad that she had.

"I'm so glad you're all right," I choked out.

"I'm sorry. I must have worried you all to death."

"Don't apologize. It's not your fault."

"Okay. But, you and the others are going to have quite a task helping me read all the signs in Tokyo. While I can speak Japanese pretty well, I can barely read any of it. My parents and my brother were the only ones who could read anything while we were here." Her voice caught a little bit when she talked about her parents and her brother.

I stared into Heather's eyes and there was no need for verbal communication. I translated all my thoughts into my eyes as I gazed at her.

"I take it you don't mind reading for me?"

"Ah."

"Well, then. Let's go!"

* * *

Heather was amazed by everything in Tokyo, and I jealously realized that some of the guys there were pretty 'amazed' by Heather. She was foreign, and it was written all over their faces. Though, I was pleased to note that Heather didn't pay any attention to them at all. Mentally, I had already staked my claim on her. She enthusiastically dove into every suggestion we made, and it seemed that Heather might have a new lease on life, despite the recent tragedy involving her family.

While we were eating lunch somewhere, Kyoya effortlessly switched to business mode."I wonder if any of the customers would like to meet sometime this week. We could have summer rates." It was apparent to everyone that there were dollar signs in Kyoya's eyes.

"Guests?" asked Heather. I coughed uncomfortably and shot Tamaki a 'don't say anything!' look. The grief counselor had said that she doesn't need any more shocks for a while, and I don't think she would be very happy to find that we were all in a host club. Plus, the fact that I was in a host club may affect whether or not I would ever get a chance to date Heather.

Tamaki stood up in his very 'Tamaki' way. "Don't you worry your sweet little head about it, Heather. Daddy's little girl doesn't need to know anything about Daddy's work."

Heather looked very suspicious, but chose to ignore what we were doing and concentrate on her food while we all talked business. I believe she knew that she wouldn't get an answer out of us. That, paired with the fact that she wasn't sure is she wanted to know what 'Daddy's business' was.

"Would next week be okay for everyone? We can't ignore our customers just because it's summer vacation."

"And why not?" complained Tamaki. "We need a break from such strenuous work!"

"It's not that strenuous, Tamaki-senpai," Haruhi chastised. "Besides, I don't even want to be part of this club."

"No whining, Haruhi. Remember, you have a debt to pay." Kyoya was dangling the debt in front of Haruhi again. "Now, the only question is: where do we meet?"

"The school should be fine," said Hikaru.

"We don't have to take them anywhere special," said Kouru.

"That's fine with me. We'll spend less money that way." The Shadow King chuckled in an almost evil way.

"You mean Ouran?" asked Heather.

"Yeah, that's the private. school we go to." Hikaru was nonchalantly bragging about his money.

"Oh, that's nice. It'll be interesting to see such a large and prestigious school." I was beginning to panic now. If Heather learned that I was in a host club, what in the world would she think of me?

**Author's Note: Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention in my last note what inspired me to write the last chapter. A song called _'Stay With Me' by _The Mitch Hansen Band was my inspiration. You should really watch the acoustic version on YouTube. The cd it's on is called The Twilight Hour. Peace Out!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Heather**

The boys, and Haruhi, spent the entire week planning their club meeting and I still didn't know what kind of a club they were. It seemed odd to me that Tamaki and Mori would have the same interests for a club.

I had been spending my nights in the twin's mansion and spending my days being escorted all around Tokyo to places I have never even heard about. It was an amazing time, but I still was extremely curious about their club, though they never mentioned it again in front of me.

Then, one morning when I woke up, the twins weren't in their oversized house to greet me and pretend they had incestuous feeling toward each other. As I was eating breakfast, one of the maids passed, one with black hair, and I asked her where the twins were.

"Heather-sama, the masters said not to tell you. And they also said they would come back later to play with you." _Boy, that's a great comfort,_I thought sarcastically. It seemed I would have to find them myself. Hadn't they said earlier that they had intended to hold their club meeting at Ouran? Then I would see them there and find out what their club was!

You would think that finding a huge school would be no problem, but it was extremely difficult. Especially considering that I got lost about five times. I'm good at a lot of things, but a good sense of direction is somthing that I definitely lack. Back home, I could get lost at super Walmarts. Compare that with Tokyo and I had a big problem. But, eventually, after about four hours of wandering around, and lots of conversations with random strangers, I finally arrived at the really big, really expensive private school known as Ouran Academy.

* * *

**Mori**

It was easy for me to tell that the entire host club was distracted. While we always put in all the effort we could for the customers, and they failed to notice our wandering minds, we were all a little guilty for leaving Heather alone. Haruhi had told us all the way to the school that she though it was wrong and unchivalrous to leave out friend completely alone. And while I did feel guilty, I still wasn't ready for Heather to know about our club activites. What we did was more than a little strange and she wasn't likely to understand. From what I had heard, host clubs were rare in the U.S. schools, and absolutely unheard of at public schools.

I did eventually intend to tell Heather, but not right now, and I was definitely going to tell her that I had no romantic interest in the girls that visited the club. I had been putting off asking Kyoya to enroll her in the school, but I thought I would tell him today. While she didn't even live in Japan, if Heather was enrolled at Ouran, she could keep living here.

* * *

**Heather**

I walked up to Ouran with as much confidence as I could muster. I saw a bunch of girls hanging around outside. "Hi!" I called. "Ummm. I'm looking for some friends of mine. Their names are Mori, Hunny, Haruhi - "

"Oh!" The girls all giggled as if I were the one being weird. "They're all in the third music room. Like they always are. If they're friends of yours, you should know this."

"Ummm. Well I'm kind of new - " The same girl cut me off again.

"Oh! You're new are you? No wonder!"

"Ummm yeah," I muttered, slightly annoyed. What was up with these girls? "Well, can you draw me a map or something. I have a terrible sense of direction."

"Sure!" they all giggled. Each girl helped to draw me a map on a piece of paper. It was pretty detailed, and it would keep me from getting too lost, though, I would probably still get lost.

Hmmm. I have to turn left here. I had managed to get slightly lost a couple of times, but it wasn't too terrible. As I walked down the hallway I saw a sign that said Music Room 3. This had to be the place. As I silently peeked into the open doors, my heart fell to the floor. Mori was sitting... with a bunch of girls. Then he looked at me.

* * *

**Mori**

Heather was here. On the inside, I was officially panicking. Then, I saw some silent tears begin to flow down her cheeks as she saw me with other girls. She cared. She had to care if she was crying right now. And I had to catch her to explain before it was too late. Her face had disappeared, and I was about to run after her when I heard Mitsukini cry, "Usa-chan! Where is my Usa-chan? I've lost him!" I couldn't abandon Mitsukini. She was staying with Hikaru and Kouru, so I could talk to her later, at their house. I would be able to explain to her then. I had to.

Heather was gone. Left. Nowhere to be found. When we had gotten to their mansion. She and her things had left.

Kyoya was making phone calls like crazy to find out where she was. How could I have been so insensitive? I should have explained right away about the club instead of being afraid she wouldn't love me because of it. Now I had hurt her. My heart felt as if it were being stabbed because now, she was in pain. And I had caused it.

"It'll be okay, Mori-senpai, " Haruhi assured me. "Heather will forgive you once she knows the truth."

"The truth will win out!" said the ever-princely Tamaki.

"Heather's smart. She'll understand," chimed the doppelgangers.

"Don't worry, Takashi. Heather-chan is a good person, and she loves you." Mitsukini wasn't a comfort either. None of them were.

"She's on a plane," said Kyoya. "To America."

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait, I've been having issues with Word, in other words, I can't access it, and that makes it difficult to update. Hope you enjoyed the new chapter, and I will update again as fast as I can.**


	9. Chapter 9

We were all riding in a helicopter to America. Kyoya was constantly typing on his laptop, and making desperate phone calls in an attempt to track Heather down. I was appreciative of my friend's efforts, but I really needed to find the words to adequately explain my situation before we found her. My sweet little Heather was probably in tears right now. Tears that I had caused. This was all my fault. All my fault. Words similar to this were constantly echoing in my head while we were riding.

It occured to me then, that I had two completely different images of Heather. There was the image of her as the strongest person in the world, capable of surviving anyting that came at her and tried to kill her. Fighting off sharks and deadly infections was easy for this Heather. There was no denying she was strong.

Then, there was the helpless image I had of her. The broken Heather, which I saw when I rescued her, and when she had the really high fever from infection. This was the image of Heather that was the exact opposite of invincible.

These contrasting mental pictures of her gave me a headache.

"Mori-senpai." Kyoya interrupted my melancholy. "You may or may not want to hear this." I gave him a questioning look. "Heather had to buy the tickets for the plane sometime, right? Well, she bought the tickets over a week ago." Over a week ago? So, then she had been planning on leaving today? I decided not to think about the tickets bought before today. Those thoughts made my headache worse.

"Why would Daddy's picturesque little girl want to leave our perfect Japan? Heather-hime is too much like her sister, Haruhi. So cruel!"

"I'm sure Heather-chan had her reasons Tama-chan and Takashi!" Mitsukini looked at me right after his sentence to see if he had made me feel any better. Right now, I didn't even have the heart to humor him.

"Yeah, boss," the twins chanted.

"Heza-chan probably was going to go over to America within the next few days to pick up her stuff," Kouru started.

"When Mori-senpai heartlessly lied to her, causing her to go home early, distraught," finished Hikaru.

"I bet she was coming to tell us about her plans to go home when she saw our club," they said together. I felt my face pull together in even more anguish than before. I felt like my chest was being constricted by a python, and my throat became tight. My heart was being stabbed by their words like a knife. Not only because they weren't particularily nice, but because they were true. It was because of my tactless actions that Heather was now on a plane to her country.

"Listen Mori-senpai," said Haruhi. "If anyone can track Heather down, it's Kyoya. And then, we'll all help you explain what she saw. We'll make sure she knows we're not all in some kind of weird harem or something. Besides, she's safe until then." While what Haruhi said was right, the Shadow King _would_ track down Heather, Mori wasn't sure she would listen to their words. Even more doubt and depression filled his mind and he continued to be silent.

"Would you all stop bothering him?" Kyoya commented. "He's going through enough already. Leave him alone. It's too late to catch her at the London airport where she catches her second plane, but we might be able to catch her at the Salt Lake City airport where she's going to catches a third plane."

"Where does she live anyway?" chimed the twins.

"Kalispell Montana. It only has a population of maybe 20,000 people, so the airport there doesn't really do any major flights. Her Salt Lake City plane goes to Missoula Montana and from there I'm going to assume that she's driving."

"When does her plane land in Salt Lake City?" I asked.

"At 3:00 Mountain Standard Time." I looked at the clock, then realized they were in a different time zone. **A/N: Mountain Standard Time is Montana's and Utah's time zone. I looked it up. ^^**

"What time is it in Mountain Standard Time, now?"

"It's about 1:00 there. We'll be there in two hours." Two hours. Two hours for Mori to suffer in the claustrophobic helicopter. Two hours to deal with Tamaki's idiotic and tactless comments, along with the twins' jibes. I really wished it were less time than that.

* * *

When we arrived at a Salt Lake airport they all searched around looking for Heather like madmen. Well, more than half of us were looking around like madmen. Meaning, Tamaki, the twins, and Mitsukini were asking random people if they had seen Heather. Kyoya, Haruhi, and I took a more practical approach. Meaning, asking the staff that would have seen Heather on the way to her next flight. It was when we were asking some security personnel about Heather when they said that the plane to Missoula was leaving early.

She was speaking in English, so I couldn't understand her, but Kyoya quickly translated. "She says that they decided to make Heather's flight leave early! It's 3:30 now, and her plane was _going _to leave at 3:45, but now it's leaving at 3:35 because everyone's on the plane! We have to catch it before it leaves!" We three ran to the area where the Missoula plane was boarding, and I being the most athletic, made it there first.

But, I still didn't make it in time. When I finally reached the boarding area, they told me they had already boarded everyone for the flight and were just about to take off. And, I couldn't even buy a ticket to get on the plane. I was too late. Again.

All the others finally caught up to me, Tamaki, Mitsukini, and the twins included. "I was too late," was all I said.

"My pilots are getting directions so maybe we can catch up to her in Missoula," Kyoya announced.

"It's okay, Takashi, we'll just try again!" said Mitsukini.

"My positively perfect daughter will not escape me!" (Anyone who has actually read this manga will know who this is.)

"Let's go to an even more commoner-filled town!" At least the twins had some enthusiasm.

Haruhi just gave me a reassuring smile. It said 'don't worry, we'll still find her.'

* * *

**Heather**

"Miss, are you alright?" asked the flight attendant.

"Yeah," I said. Though, I was far from alright. I was turned towards the window, so no one could see the tears that sometimes flowed down my cheeks from heartache. All those girls! Who would have known that the soft-spoken Mori would belong to some sick kind of harem? It had stung. The fact that he didn't care about me in the same way was even more painful than rubbing salt on a wound.

But, the trip back home was a necessary one to make. If it weren't, then I would have at least stayed and told him off.

Living with those boys, and Haruhi, had been like entering a dream, and like all dreams, it had to end. I had to reenter to harsh reality of life and enter the empty house which was once a home to my family. I would sleep alone in that house tonight. At least I had had a temporary friendship, though. It had been a very nice dream.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Okay, so I looked this over and saw some mistakes so I updated it (hopefully mistake free) All secrets of Heather are revealed next chapter!**

The agony of waiting is something that I was not accustomed to. I am not an impatient person, but waiting to see Heather, was like waiting for the sun to rise in a very dark and unpleasant place. We were on the dreaded helicopter again going to Missoula. Kyoya did some research and apparently it's one of the biggest towns in the state at a populations of about 60,000. There, Heather would somehow get a ride to her house.

We would be reaching the airport in a matter of minutes and I was taking up a peculiar habit: fidgeting. I couldn't stand still, otherwise, it seemed, I would fall apart. I didn't expect to find Heather there. For some reason, I felt that I wouldn't see her there. I would have to wait until we reached Kalispell.

* * *

Intuition works in funny ways. In other words, it's funny when it ends up being right. We talked to some people at the airport and apparently, Heather had somehow convinced the clerk at the car rental area to rent her a car when she only had a learner's permit. Who ran that place?

If I thought Missoula was small, then Kalispell was miniscule. And, Kalispell was still one of the top ten biggest cities in this state. My mind had been having blackouts and time skips while I was in the helicopter. I was so worried, that my mind wasn't even working right. Kyoya, the twins, and Mitsukini had blackmailed the clerk and gotten the info on the car Heather had rented. It was a black suburban.

We were on the outskirts of town now, and there was a car wreck below us...involving a black suburban.

"Kyoya, stop the helicopter!" I yelled. Please let it not be Heather. I was out of that contraption before it was even on the ground. The others were behind me in shock. I rarely talked, let alone yelled and they were trying to process this new side of me that I was showing.

I was running over to the accident scene to see that the airbag had been deployed on the suburban. As it deflated, I saw the bleeding, unmistakable face of Heather. "Heather," I whispered. The police had been called and they came up behind me with medics and a stretcher.

One of them said, "Guys, it's Heather. Heather Isenroff. That poor kid! Come on, let's get her to the hospital." They ignored me, and I was happy to be ignored. How did the police here know my Heather? I saw the other person involved in the wreck being put in an ambulance too, but I didn't care. I didn't care at all.

_At the hospital… 3 hours later…_

Heather didn't have much family left. A grandma, an aunt and an uncle, and a few cousins. When they saw all of us walking into the hospital, we had given them a heart attack.

_"Who the hell are you?" Her uncle was a short, balding man with a short temper too._

_"I am Kyoya Ohtori. It was my private beach that Heather washed up on. She just up and disappeared on us, and we came here to Kalispell to see if anything was wrong."_

_"Oh, thank god! You are the boys who saved Heather's life! We are so grateful! It is truly a miracle she survived! You are all welcome to stay at their house instead of a hotel," her aunt sighed._

_"That's okay, we all have some vacation homes pretty close to here." Kyoya gave them the same charming smile he gave everyone._

_"I'd actually like to stay there." That had been my first time speaking and they were all surprised. "Heather's bag needs to be dropped off." Kyoya quickly translated. He was the only one fluent enough in English to really do any talking._

_"Of course!" her aunt gave me another one of her warm smiles. "Here is the key, and the nurse gave me her bag… Ah! Here it is. I suppose we'll see you all here tomorrow. The doctor said she won't be conscious until then." Her Aunt danced off with her bored looking children and her husband. The grandma quickly followed suit._

So now I was in a rented car, headed over to Heather's house with the entire Host Club in tow.

We pulled up to a white house slightly out of town. It was almost unreal, entering the house of four people who had died.

As I stood in the living room I saw a long line of photos placed on the mantle. There were two that caught my eye. One was undoubtedly a picture of a little four-year-old Heather. She had the dark hair that the twins had mentioned back at Kyoya's vacation home, but she still had the beautiful deep blue eyes that I knew so well.

The other picture was one of her entire family. I saw a man and a woman who looked about fifty in the photo. The man was gray in some areas but he still had some of his black hair left and the woman showed no signs of going gray.

The next oldest person was a man with dark hair in his early twenties. He was large and muscular, very tall, with a huge smile on his face.

A little girl, no older than five, was sitting on the shoulders of the twenty-some man.

Then last, were two Heathers standing side by side in the photo. It had taken me a minute to realize that they were two separate, but identical people. Identical twins. Kyoya had said that they didn't know whether the body they had found was Heather's or someone else's.

Kyoya came up behind me. "Yeah. That's her identical twin sister, Kohaku. Or, in English, Amber. That was why the body wasn't identified until Heather woke up." Mori looked at the two girls in the photo and saw that they weren't really all that alike.

Amber was wearing fashionable clothes and a smile. Confidence practically radiated off her. While Heather looked like she would rather fade into the background. She was wearing baggy gray clothes and seemed completely detached from everything around her. Plus, while her sister wore contacts, she wore clunky glasses that hid her face.

Then Mitsukini, Tamaki, and the twins had to cause a commotion.

"Kyoya, Kyoya," chanted the twins. "Take us to the commoners pet hotel!"

"What are you talking about?" he muttered.

"Heather-chan's family had pets and they were staying in a pet hotel until now!" Mitsukini was bouncing up and down with excitement at the prospect of meeting the animals.

"And how do you know this?" Kyoya looked more exhausted by the second and I couldn't blame him. We had been flying in a helicopter for countless numbers of hours, been at the scene of a car crash, and talked with Heather's family at the hospital. And Kyoya was scary when he didn't get his sleep.

"We listened to the messages on her answering machine!" Tamaki's eyes sparkled with wonder. "It's an amazing invention of commoners. It records the messages of the people who call you when you're not at home." He took a swift look at Haruhi, then tiptoed over to Kyoya and whispered, "Because apparently they can't afford servants to do it for them!" He nodded as if that confirmed that his words were indeed the truth.

Kyoya sighed. "Okay, we'll pick up the animals and head over to Hunny-senpai's cottage. We'll pick you up in the morning on the way to the hospital, Mori-senpai."

The clock said that it was 7:00 p.m. here, but it was much later in Tokyo and I was ready to sleep off the jet lag.

Upstairs, there were three bedrooms. One was obviously the master, the next had dirty magazines so it was probably her brother's, and then there was a bedroom with pictures of kitten taped to the walls. Not Heather's.

So I headed to the basement, and there was a lot of space there. There was a music roomed filled with instruments and sheet music, and then there was an open space that was divided by duct tape.

One half was painted purple, had a phone, and other girly items you'd expect to find in a teenage girl's bedroom. The other half looked like it belonged to an adult. A desk with a laptop on it was there. A professional looking docking station, too. Thick psychology books were stacked on her nightstand as well as some books on musical theory.

I took off my shoes and climbed into the bed that was too small for me. _I'll make it up to you Heather. Tomorrow you will know the truth, I promise. Then maybe you'll forgive me._


	11. Chapter 11

The next morning I was picked up by all the host club and everyone - with the exception of Haruhi and Kyoya - were rambling on about the animals staying in Mitsukini's cottage. All I wanted to do was get to the hospital.

I slowly walked into Heather's room. She was sitting upright, staring out the window into the gray and miserable sky.

"Heather?" I asked hesitantly.

"What do you want?" Hurt rang in every syllable of her question.

"To talk."

"About what, Mori? There's no reason for me to be in Tokyo anymore. Every good thing has to come to an end and I can't shirk my responsibilities to have fun with all of you." She turned to my direction. "You don't love me. I get it. It's okay, I'm not going to force myself on you. So just leave me alone."

"I do love you Heather."

"If you love a person. You don't join some weird harem with all of your friends. Why the hell was Haruhi there anyway? She's a girl."

"I'm not -"

"DADDY'S SO GLAD HIS PRECIOUS HEATHER IS ALIVE! DADDY LOVES HIS HEATHER SOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH. HE COULDN'T LIVE WITHOUT HER. SHE IS LIKE A FLOWER BLOOMING IN THE WINTERTIME." Tamaki squeezed Heather in a suffocating hug, but she looked too tired to protest.

"Tamaki. She's in a hospital get off her." Kyoya turned to me. "I hope we weren't interrupting anything Mori-senpai." I gave him my usual blank look.

"We're not in a harem, Heather-chan - we're in a host club!" Mitsukini bounced onto her lap.

"What the hell is that?"

"The pretty ladies pay us to talk to them for a little while. I get to eat cake, talk about Usa-chan, and be cute around the pretty ladies all I want!"

Kyoya pushed his glasses farther up his nose. "Tamaki treats the girls like princesses, the twins do their brotherly love incest act, Haruhi just talks about whatever, and I sometimes take customers myself."

Heather looked away conspicuously. "What does Mori do?" She put on an aloof act.

"He usually just sits there." I nodded to affirm Kyoya's words.

"Wait…Haruhi's a girl. So she…entertains girls?"

"Yes, everyone at our school thinks Haruhi's a boy."

The twins abruptly changed the subject. "You know, Heather, you get into an awful lot of accidents," Kouru noticed.

"Yeah," Hikaru put in. "Maybe you're cursed by Nekozawa. It wouldn't surprise me."

"HEATHER!" Tamaki screeched. "Please tell me it isn't so! Daddy's daughter can't be cursed."

"She's not cursed Tamaki." Haruhi put her logistical reasoning in. "Heather. I know that this is a lot to take in at one time, so we'll leave and let you think about it. It's weird, but the host club is not what you think it is." Haruhi then proceeded to push all of us out of Heathers room so Heather could breath.

* * *

Kyoya looked at me. "Mori-senpai. You should know why the police knew Heather." I gave him a look to show I was interested. "She used to work for them. They pulled some strings and she worked for them as an interrogator. Ah, here's one of them now."

A police man walked up to us. "Yeah, Heather worked for us. Nice kid. Gifted with psychology. I swear she knows the human mind like a textbook. And she can read it like any old book. Helped us throw a lot of thugs in jail. Anyway, it got to her after a while. She had trouble relating to kids her age, people in general actually, and the work she did only made it worse. Mentally and emotionally it just wore her down. She just couldn't do it anymore and quit her job."

Kyoya turned to me again. "She lost that skill while she was in the ocean. Some switch in her brain just turned off. Quit working. So, she can't do it anymore. She actually seemed happy to be rid of it." The next thing he said was added as an afterthought. "The crash wasn't her fault. The other person was drunk."

"Can I see her?" I asked.

"Yeah, go ahead."

I lightly knocked on the door. I didn't hear an answer, but I came in anyway. "Heather." The name was a caress, or a sigh, on my lips. It was the most beautiful word I could have spoken.

"Mori." She sounded confused. She gave me the most forlorn look I have ever seen in a person. The police man's words rang in my mind. _She had trouble relating to kids her age, people in general actually, and the work she did only made it worse._

"Why did you leave?"

"I have responsibilities. I'm the one who has to plan their funerals." Oh, god. she had bought the tickets in advance because she knew she had to get here to plan their funerals. Her voice cracked. "I was coming to tell you when I saw you with all those girls." She was openly crying right now. "I feel so alone. I always feel alone, but this is so much worse than normal."

I couldn't take it anymore. I walked over, picked her up, and sat down in a chair near her bed. I held her body, so miniscule compared to mine, and pulled her in close. She clung to me like a small child, and I didn't mind, because it was about time she clung to somebody. "It's going to be okay," I murmured.

I could see her entire life before my eyes. An outcast because she was from another place. A kindergartner that spoke just as much Japanese as English. Not as social as her sister, she probably decided that fading into the background was easier. Then the job made it even worse for the girl who felt alone even among her family members. She never let herself get close to anyone, and she relied on only herself for any kind of comfort.

"I was drowning before the ship sank," she whispered. "I was just drowning in people instead of water. I was swallowed up by it all and there was no one to save me. The job was just so manipulative, and after a while, I psychologically profiled people without thinking, and became even more of a social outcast. One friend. That's all I had. I was swallowed in a sea, and then you saved me." I stiffened. "You and all the host club. You were so different, and I couldn't profile people anymore, so it was perfect. It was like a dream that wouldn't end until I got a phone call from my friend. They said that I had to come back to plan the funerals. So I bought tickets. When I went over to tell you guys I was leaving, I saw you with the girls." She broke into another bout of sobs, which only made me pull her closer and hold her tighter.

"I'm sorry." That was all I could say. But my apology was sincere.

She nodded and continued. "I thought I would have to go back to it all. Being miserable. I don't want to be here anymore. I can't stand it!"

"Shhhh." She turned her head to the flowers that were in her room.

"I hate my name." I stared at her. "Heather is a kind of flower. And like a lot of flowers, it has a meaning. Do you know what heather means?" I shook my head. "It means solitude. That's why I hate my name, because I know what true solitude means." It took her half an hour curled up on my lap to fall asleep.

* * *

I walked up to Tamaki. "Could she go to Ouran?"

Kyoya stepped in on our conversation. "At her school, her grades are all perfect. There's only one academic scholarship, but I'm sure she could get another kind of scholarship."

"I will call my dad!" announced Tamaki as he furiously started dialing the number.

**Heather**

When I woke up, the entire club was in my room.

Tamaki got all up in my face and asked me a question. "Heather, how would you like to live with us in Tokyo and attend Ouran Academy?"


	12. Chapter 12

Mori

Heather and I sat on the plane together as it headed towards Japan. She looked a little nervous, so I took her hand and smiled at her because for some reason, that always seemed to calm her down. It had taken a few days for her to sort through everything in her house and decide what to keep, but luckily, after the funeral, her family had said they would handle everything else.

_Flashback_

Heather had been looking at the pictures on her mantle when I walked over. "Why was your hair darker in that picture?" The picture she was holding was one of her in preschool.

"When we were younger, I loathed the fact that me and my sister looked exactly alike. Nobody could ever tell us apart. So, my parents allowed me to dye my hair for the sole purpose of individuality. After a few years, our complete difference in personality and the way we dressed made it easier for people to tell us apart and I stopped dying my hair."

Now, after the incident in the hospital, it didn't seem painful anymore for Heather to talk about her family. Her mourning was finally over.

_End Flashback_

**Heather**

I was at Ouran now talking to the man who was Tamaki's father. He seemed to be a pleasant man, but way too much like Tamaki. "You seem to be in quite the predicament right now Isenroff-san. You see, we can only offer out one academic scholarship at a time and Fujioka Haruhi currently holds it. Are there any other talents you have that we might be able to utilize?"

"Well -"

Suddenly, the door to his office opened and slammed shut as a completely odd looking woman stormed into the room. "Take her in now, Suoh-sama!"

"What is the meaning of this, Ishiyama-san?"

"I could smell her all the way across the building!" _Where are all the people who act like Tamaki coming from? I wondered. And I don't have B.O.!_

"You could smell her, Ishiyama-san?"

"Yes! I can smell someone with musical talent from a mile away! Quick, what do you play?"

"Ummm… I'm pretty good at the piano and the cello, and I play the violin and viola on the side." I wasn't exactly sure what to think of this woman. For some reason, she dressed exactly like I would imagine a hippie dressing.

"We must give her a musical scholarship!" Her enthusiasm, as enthusiasm tends to do to me, wore me out completely.

"We have to hear her play first." At least Mr. Suoh seemed to have calmed down. "And Ishiyama-san, I think you're scaring Isenroff-san."

"Oh, I'm so sorry dear," she cooed at me. "Come with me now, so we can get you that scholarship! I must have you in my music program!" She dragged me down to the first music room and plopped me down in the piano bench. "Play this!" The music she had put in front of me wasn't that hard so I began to sight read the piece.

By the time I was done, she had tears in her eyes like the dramatic person she was and she dragged me over to a cello and I played that too. "YOU'RE IN!" I could almost feel my hair flying behind me from the force of her yell. "Isenroff Heather, you are getting a musical scholarship into Ouran! Now, what size cello do you play usually?"

"A three quarter size. I brought mine with me, so the school doesn't have to provide me one."

"Oh lovely! The new semester starts this Monday, so I will see you at the music club after school!" Then she danced off like some sixty-year-old fairy.

Back at Mr. Suoh's office, we worked out my schedule. "Hmmm. No psychology classes for you. You're quite good at that already. English is a class you could teach, and seeing as how you're still learning Japanese I won't make you take another language class. Ah, so I think I have a good class schedule for you! Welcome to Ouran and classes start at 8:00 Monday morning."

* * *

So there I was, Monday morning standing outside the ridiculously large school with Haruhi - who had graciously welcomed me into her home - at 7:30.

"So Heather, do you need help finding your locker?" The desperate look I gave her must have said it all because she smiled and showed me where it was. Knowing me, the map I held in my hand would be useless given my complete lack of any sense of direction.

I could hear the curious whispers as we walked through the crowded hallways. "Obviously not Japanese." "I wonder where she's from?" "Look at that atrocious posture, she's probably American." It went on and on.

As far as the 'obviously not Japanese' part went, that much was true. I had blonde hair, blue eyes, was really curvy, and wore a C-cup (in American sizes, not Japanese). If I was Japanese, then Kyoya was South American.

My first class was Math. At least that was a relief. Something that was the same all over the world. "Heather," Haruhi smiled. "We have first period together." I sighed with relief. At least I had classes with Haruhi and the twins.

I had almost all my classes with Haruhi, Hikaru, Kouru, or some combination of them. I looked down at my schedule again.

_1st period - Trigonometry_

_2nd period - World History_

_3rd period - Biology_

_4th period - Modern Japanese_

_Lunch_

_5th period - Modern Literature_

_6th period - Cooking_

_7th period - Study Hall_

It didn't look so hard. The only class I would have any trouble in would be modern Japanese and I could easily get someone to help me with that subject.

I stepped into world history and by now some of the braver students had started talking to me. Pretty much everyone had the same questions: where I came from, where I got my scar, etc. Some people even commented on my still-thick accent which refused to go away.

* * *

By the end of the day I was completely exhausted. At least my music club activities had been easy and relaxing. Of course, now I had to walk up to the Host Club and finish my homework there while I watched girls flirt with Mori.

Ah, Mori. Sometime between the hospital and now we had started dating. Kyoya had insisted that we keep it secret because that might harm business, but I didn't mind. I didn't need some crazed fangirls trying to kill me in my sleep, and being the subject of school gossip didn't appeal to me either.

I stepped into the Host Club and sat down in the window seat and began on my homework that I didn't finish in study hall.

Some girl enquired about me and Tamaki began shooting off his overly large mouth. "Ah yes, Heather's is a tragic story. She technically died once. How sad." The look I gave him was the nastiest one I could muster and he instantly paled. "But that is a story for only Heather to tell so let's not talk about it here."

After that I was content to put half my attention on my homework and the other half on the conversations going on around me. I often caught Mori looking in my direction which gave me a little burst of pleasure each time it occurred. In all fairness, I could understand why some of the girls came here. These boys could be quite entertaining.

Eventually all my homework was done and I had nothing to do except sit there. Then, without thinking, I took out a notebook and began jotting down music notes onto it. The little song that played in my head would have been perfect background music to what was going on and I unconsciously fingered the notes.

I had been so engrossed that I hadn't realized that club activities were over. I slipped everything into my bag and stood, ready to go home with Haruhi. Mori gave me a hug before I left and I began to feel myself settling into a comfortable routine.

"You don't mind if I check out a book at the library real quick do you?" Haruhi asked.

"Not at all."

While Haruhi was in checkout and I was browsing, I accidentally bumped into someone. He had red hair and a really mean look, but I was polite and handed him the things he dropped onto the floor. "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention." I smiled.

I began to walk off but he said, "Wait! You're the transfer student. From America right? Class 1-A on scholarship?"

"Yeah. What class are you in? I haven't seen you around."

"I'm in 1-D and my name is Kasanoda Ritsu."

"Isenroff Heather." We shook hands.

"Where'd you get that nasty scar?" he asked, referring to the hunk of scar tissue that was my arm.

"Oh. I fought off a tiger shark after it bit me. I nearly died." I said this all very pleasantly, as if it were nothing. "Oh, there's Haruhi. Gotta go, Kasanoda-kun but I hope I see you around."

The guy had a nasty face, but he seemed nice. As my first day at Ouran drew to a close, I knew that I could have fun at this school.


	13. Chapter 13

I was in the library browsing when I met Kasanoda again. "Isenroff-san," he breathed.

"Hello, Kasanoda-kun." I gave him a smile and he appeared so grateful for it that I felt bad for him. It hadn't taken me long to notice how all the other students avoided him like the plague. "If you want, you could call me Heather." He was pleased with even being able to talk to me and now he seemed, if possible, even more blissful to be calling me by my first name.

"Heather-san…" He pulled a confused look.

"If you want to ask me something, just spit it out."

"Why aren't you scared of me?"

"Well, I did notice you have a very scary face, but I've just seen way scarier things."

"You have?"

"Yes. The tiger shark was probably one of the scariest, but I used to interrogate criminals back in America and some of those people weren't exactly pleasant either…" I continued looking up and down the shelves as we talked. He seemed to be quite socially awkward, but then again, I was only just learning how to properly interact with people myself. I noticed that his face went red a lot, but I figured it was only because he was nervous talking with someone his age.

That is, until he asked me out. "Ummm, what?" I asked. I was kind of shocked.

He began stuttering really badly, looking absolutely panicked. "I didn't mean… if you don't want to… forget….no…"

"Get a hold of yourself. I'm not really all that intimidating am I?"

His face was so flushed it was almost funny and he shook his head no. "So will you um, go out with me?" he asked again.

"I'm sorry, but no." He looked about ready to fall apart with misery. "It's not what you think. I already have a boyfriend. And," I added, "if you want to go somewhere just as friends, I have no problems." He appeared to be quite a bit more happy after I added that. "The public library has some kind of manga club that I have been dying to see. It's at 3:00 on Saturday. Here's that address. That sound okay to you?"

"Sure." He tried to put on an aloof act as he left the library, but I peeked out the door after he left, only to see him skipping home. Literally. I gave a tiny little giggle before I myself almost skipped across campus to see the host club.

I found now, once I understood the situation, that I was okay with Mori being in a host club. That, and I had observed the fact that he said almost nothing to their 'customers' while he and I actually did have actual conversations.

Plus, he was an amazing boyfriend. Ranka-san was even okay with him. (As okay as Ranka-san could be with any boyfriend of mine. The man had informally adopted me as his second daughter.) A few dates here and there put me in an otherworldly state of being that clouded my mind in a very pleasant way.

Unfortunately, my thoughts of Mori were cut short when I entered the host club room. There were no guests. That in and of itself was odd because usually club activities didn't end this early, that, and I had obviously stepped in on some kind of conversation.

"And to involve a delicate female flower? Unforgivable! I swear to you I will have the Host Club disbanded immediately!"

"Hey, guys." I waved. "What's going on here? What kind of school are they from?" I pointed to the girls who had been yelling at the member of the Host Club earlier.

"Heather," said Mori.

"Hi!" I skipped over and gave him a hug. Unfortunately, the peculiar girls who had just been telling off the boys, didn't seem to like this.

"What are you doing?" the tallest one exclaimed. "Wait, don't tell me that you, also, have been brainwashed by these morons!

The shortest one seemed to be in distress too. "Oh no! I bet she's become part of this as well, Benio! What shall we do?

Then the one with the long hair seemed intent on talking, as well, so she added her input. "Perhaps she has come for their services. Look at how she leaped into the arms of the tall one!"

"Who the hell are they?" I was annoyed. They weren't customers, so what were they doing here? And what was so wrong with me hugging Mori?

"They are students at Roberia academy," answered Kyoya.

"Oh, yeah. I've heard of that place."

"They are members of the Zuka club and aren't pleased with the Host Club at the moment." I nodded, beginning to understand.

Then, I suddenly found myself swept away by the one they had called Benio. "We cannot allow you or that other female in the presence of these hoodlums! What business have either of you here?"

"Mori's my boyfriend." I pointed to Mori, who was, at the moment, looking disgruntled at trying to get past Suzuran and Hinagiku to rescue me from Benio's clutches.

"How can you stand having your partner cheat on you?" Everything Benio said seemed to be dramatic. She was easily as dramatic as Tamaki.

"Wow, you're as dramatic as Tamak." She glared at me for that comment, but I ignored her. "Anyway, I don't really see it as cheating. Besides, I know that Mori would never do anything like that."

"He is cruelly making you believe that you are the only woman in his life! This is why the Host Club must be stopped!"

Thankfully, Haruhi stepped in with coffee! "I made some coffee. Would you like some?"

I snuck off to Mori while all the crazies were complimenting Haruhi, and while Tamaki was making an idiot of himself.

Benio's dramatic side got the better of her again as she brought Haruhi close to her. "I can't keep ladies at this club knowing its current state!" Somehow, while she was talking, Suzuran managed to drag me off towards Benio again and I, too, was being hugged tightly, along with Haruhi. "I will start the transfer process immediately and welcome them into the Zuka club!"

* * *

I sat in the corner of the room on my laptop. There was no denying I was tempted to join Roberia academy. Not because of the students I had met from there, but because of the amazing music program there. The school had quite the history of musical geniuses teaching there.

I heard someone walk into the room. Mori. "Are you considering it?"

"Yes. Their music programs there are remarkable to say the least."

"You don't like it here?"

"Of course I love it here, but I also have to take my education into consideration. They said they have a special exchange program that will help me get caught up language wise, as well. It's a pretty good deal for me." He sat down next to me, pulled me close, and rested his chin on my head.

"You don't have to stay." So he said, but I knew he wanted me to go to Ouran. I couldn't make my decision at the moment, though. With those large, gray eyes staring at me, I couldn't thin straight.

"Well, I haven't made my decision yet, so for now, don't worry about it."


	14. Chapter 14

Should I join Roberia, or shouldn't I? That was the question. I wanted to go to college and if I wanted to go to a musical school, like Julliard for example, then Roberia would definitely be better than Ouran. However, then I would have to make new friends all over again.

Plus, while I really hated to admit this, the Host Club had become something of a family to me. Tamaki had gotten his deepest wish. But still, I couldn't rule out Roberia if I wanted to keep my career options completely open.

I was sitting in the room I shared with Haruhi, homework finished, wondering what to do. I had decided long ago that sleep would probably clear my mind enough to make such an important, life-changing, verdict. So here I sat, uncertain of what to do to take my mind off this horrible situation.

Music. My mind then took me to Music Room 3, and the scenes witnessed there. I had long ago finished the piece intended as background music for the club, so what would I compose now? Holst: The Planets, and the Four Seasons, by Vivaldi, came to mind. I would write a song for each member!

Nothing could be more distracting than having to write seven pieces of music! With that, I quickly took out a notebook and began to scribble down notes that would properly represent Tamaki.

No subtlety in this piece. Loud, accented notes ran rampant through the score and it was all very quick. My mind became sucked into the music, when I felt myself being shaken by someone. Haruhi.

"Heather, it's 10:00, don't you usually go to bed by now?" she asked.

"Yeah. It's 10:00 already? Last I checked, it was 7:45." I laughed nervously.

"Are you considering going to Roberia?"

"Yeah. It would look good on any college application to come from a school that is so musically influential." I looked down at the piece I had labeled: The King. "For anyone that wants to be a composer, going to Roberia would be a good choice. But, I haven't made up my mind yet."

Sleeping was hard because there was always a buzz at the back of my mind that reminded me that at this time tomorrow, I might be enrolled at Roberia Academy!

* * *

I was twitchy and fidgety all throughout my classes tomorrow. I didn't have music club, so I had no excuse to postpone going to the clubroom. So, I arrived at the clubroom with Haruhi, and all the crazy Zuka Club girls were there. If I joined the school, they would be some of my least favorite people there.

"Greetings, young ladies. We're here as promised!" _How delightful,_ I thought sarcastically. "Were you here waiting for us?" No. They reminded me of three female Tamakis, when everyone knows that there should only be one Tamaki living at a time, for the sanity of the world.

"No. The guys told me to come in with you when you arrived," Haruhi said.

"They've been acting weird all day." I paused. "Weirder than usual."

When we stepped in, let's just say that everyone was at a loss for words.

My eyes were very nearly burned out of their sockets. I saw a sight that no one should see. A bunch of boys, in wigs, dressed in fancy dresses, as women. Tamaki began blabbing about some commoner 'Two Tastes in One' plan. But I wasn't really listening.

Thankfully, at least, Mori wasn't dressed up as a woman. I couldn't imagine him cross-dressing, and I certainly didn't want to. In my mind, Mori was the paragon of masculinity and that was something that I didn't want to change anytime soon.

"What the hell," I muttered. I began some long rant in English that involved many words. Including: cross-dressing, gayest, what the hell were you thinking, are you a man or not, and many more. But, eventually, along with Haruhi, I began a long giggle fit looking at how ridiculous our friends looked.

I had no idea that all of them, including Kyoya, would go this far in trying to make Haruhi and I stay. Then, I remembered the reason I had entered Ouran Academy in the first place.

"Young lady…" began Benio.

"I'm sorry. It takes all kinds and I think your way at looking at life is… interesting, but… I have a dream I want to fulfill. That's why I came to Ouran. I never had any intention of leaving." So Haruhi never intended to leave?

"I'm sorry too," I said. "I _had_ thought about leaving. But then, just now, I remembered why I came to Ouran in the first place: to be with my friends. Besides, I think Ouran is a good enough high school to get into a good music college. I think that right now, I need to concentrate on my social life instead of my academics." I frowned. "Plus, I'm really afraid that if I go to Roberia, I might be molested or raped." Hikaru and Kouru laughed at my comment, but I was perfectly serious. The girls from Roberia I had met so far were all really touchy feely.

Benio left, swearing that she would rescue us, but I think I would need rescuing form Roberia if I ever went there.

* * *

After going to Anime club with Kasanoda, I came home and Ranka was there. "Some mail came for you. It's in English."

I opened the letter, which turned out to be an invitation.

_Mr. Mitsukini Haninozuka and_

_Mr. Takashi Morinozuka_

_invite you to have tea and cake_

_with them this afternoon at 3:00._

_A limousine will pick you up at 2:30._

It was pretty romantic that Mori had the invitation printed in English. He must understand how overwhelming it is to be surrounded by a language you only recently learned to speak and read. Plus, I didn't have that many things in English to read.

It was 2:00 now, so I had an hour to wait before I could see Mori.

When the limousine came, I got an idea just how rich Mori and Hunny must be. It was shiny, sleek, and undoubtedly expensive. But, extremely comfortable for the half hour ride to someone's house. I didn't even know whose house I was going to.

I walked inside the enormous mansion, only to be swept towards what I assumed was the dining room, by Hunny. "Do you like my house, Heather-chan?"

"Sure."

"Yay! Takashi is waiting for us!" In the dining room, lots of cake and sweets were laid out for us. I noticed a little teapot sitting there, but otherwise, it was just a mountain of sweet. Which, most likely, was going to be, for the most part, consumed by Hunny. "Do all the sweets look good, Heather-chan?"

"Yeah. They really do, Hunny."

We sat down to eat, and Hunny provided most of the conversation. Then I talked a little, and Mori only said a couple of words throughout the tea.

I had already eaten a piece of chocolate cake, but I was still kind of hungry, so I noticed a piece of cheesecake that didn't have any strawberry sauce drizzled on it. I was listening to what Hunny was saying, and absently spooning a piece into my mouth when I tasted a strawberry filling.

Immediately, I felt my throat close up from an allergic reaction. Then I began choking on the piece I had half swallowed. Mori was about to do the heimlich when I shook my head and mouthed 'hospital'.

I was extremely allergic to strawberries and even if he got the cheesecake piece out of my throat, I still wouldn't be able to breathe. So Mori, being Mori, picked me up and began running towards the nearest hospital with me.

My mind became fuzzy from lack of oxygen. It was difficult to understand completely what was going on anymore.

After a few minutes, I was in what I assumed was an emergency room. Luckily, they knew immediately what was going on and gave me a shot in the arm. Within a couple of seconds of the shot, I felt my throat open up and I began to breathe again. Of course, it was more like gasping, but you get the picture.

I didn't have to stay overnight, so I walked outside the building and Mori was waiting there for me. "Don't tell the others. Tamaki will just spaz out."

"Are you okay?"

I nodded. "I'm allergic to strawberries and by the time I noticed, it was already too late. Thank you. That's the third time you saved my life right?" He nodded. "And that's the third time I've been in the hospital since meeting you. And the fourth time I've been in a danger since that one day I was attacked by the shark."

"You look angry."

"I am angry. With myself. I feel so weak and stupid."

"You couldn't have helped any of those situations."

"I know. I must be the most unlucky person in the world, accident-wise. However, that must be to balance out the absolute luck I struck with my friends and my boyfriend." By now we were walking back to Hunny's house. "At least this was easily taken care of. Also, I didn't have to stay overnight! That's a plus." He smiled one of his perfect smiles that made his eyes light up with warmth.

Absolute perfection.

It would be difficult to write a song for such a perfect person.

**Author's Note: It's a little bit longer than usual, I hope no one minds. I've been considering changing the name of this from Shark Attack! to Music Speaks Louder Than Words. I wrote that in an essay I wrote and I really like the sound of it. Tell me if you want me to change the title of my story!**


	15. Chapter 15

"Sometimes it feels good to be away from the Host Club, doesn't it?" asked Haruhi.

"Yep," I giggled. "Though, I think if it weren't for Tamaki that the lot of them would be a little more bearable."

"True," she mused. "But the twins cause a lot of trouble, too."

"Yeah, but at least they give you entertainment, Tamaki just gives everyone around him a headache." She nodded vigorously. "Besides, I bet Tamaki is the type to find your address and to come over just because he had a bad dream or something." We laughed, imagining the situation that seemed impossible at the time however…

It seems that there is no escaping the infamous host club….ever. "Go home now!" Haruhi was obviously not pleased, but I wasn't really all that surprised and figured there was no use getting worked up over it. Besides, I knew that no matter what, Tamaki would somehow talk himself into our home.

I rarely objected to anything that was going on in my life because there was rarely any point to it. Besides, before I had moved back to Japan, I had had a very passive personality that often resulted in my getting walked all over. However, I didn't really mind having the Host Club here.

I waved at Mori as Tamaki began talking with our landlady, despite Haruhi's protests.

A minute later, Haruhi was letting everyone into our apartment. "Let's make things clear. You're just taking a quick look."

I whispered in her ear. "Like that's going to happen."

Then Hunny said, "Haru! We brought cakes! We've got strawberry and chocolate!" Called it.

"Okay," she muttered. "We eat cake and then you go home." Good luck with that, Haruhi. I, personally, saw that the Host Club certainly wouldn't be leaving until they wanted to leave. It would be while.

Haruhi looked kind of out of it as we made tea in the kitchen. Apparently she didn't deal with stress as well as I did, or she really hated having the Host Club here and didn't deal with their antics as well as I did. Either way, she looked just about ready to have a stroke.

I distinctly heard Tamaki shout-whispering from the table, "What have you done, fools? Are you trying to embarrass Haruhi and Heather by giving them such stuff? Just look at their troubled appearance!" Did we honestly look that troubled? From where I was standing, by the cupboards getting the cups, Haruhi just looked mildly pissed.

Immediately after Tamaki's idiotic comment, Hikaru tried to 'make up' for 'embarrassing me and Haruhi'. "Haruhi, that wasn't really a gift. Can I have it back? I'll give you a statue of an elephant or something later.

"But, I already poured it." It seemed Haruhi hadn't heard Tamaki.

"Oh… That's okay then." She turned to me when they began talking again.

"Tamaki was an idiot again, wasn't he?"

"Yes. He seemed under the impression that we were embarrassed by the tea we were given." We sighed, exasperated.

We walked back into the dining area. "The tea's ready," I called.

"I'm sorry they're not all Japanese teacups," Haruhi apologized.

"It's okay! I'll have the coffee mug, because I'm not used to Japanese teacups."

Hunny brought out the delicious cakes that made my stomach growl, especially because I had accidentally skipped breakfast this morning. "You two can pick first Haru-chan and Heather-chan."

"Are you sure? That's rare," she mused.

Kouru smiled. "It's fine. We can eat these anytime." He said that only to be shushed by the Idiot King and Doppelganger Number One.

"The strawberry one."

"Chocolate," I said firmly. No strawberry cake for me, and I was still very cautious about eating any cheesecake, lest it have any form of fruity filling that involves strawberries.

"Haru, Takashi and I will have strawberry and Heather will have the chocolate!" I wondered if Hunny ever didn't have any sugar in his system. I bet that was why he was always in a bad mood when he woke up - because it had been hours since he had eaten anything sugary.

**Mori**

"Do you like strawberries?" I asked Haruhi.

"Yes," she said cautiously. "But doesn't Heather want any of your strawberries?"

I shook my head. "She's allergic." I remembered the horrible day I had to bring her to the hospital. It was all my fault. I should have told her that some of the cakes had filling just in case she was allergic. I couldn't believe how stupid I had been. I needed to make it up to Heather somehow.

"Oh. Thank you very much."

I was wallowing in guilt when Mitsukini announced that he was hungry. "Well it's already past noon," said Kouru.

"What's for lunch?"

**Heather**

Absolutely no sense of appropriateness. Those idiots had no sense of what was or wasn't polite. I would have almost felt sorry for how pathetic that was if I didn't feel somewhat irked.

At last Kyoya stepped in to show some common courtesy. "Well, we're the ones who have been imposing on you. Let me pay. Why don't we order in sushi? Anything you like."

Haruhi looked almost alarmed at the prospect of Kyoya paying. "I don't want you to pay for me. I can't handle the interest."

"I'm using the money from selling your notebook paper on the auction site."

"That's the same as me paying," she muttered.

"Just go along with it," I said. "Otherwise the money for the meal will come directly out of our wallets."

"Well, I know a good sushi place nearby. I guess I'll order something. The food there is pretty high quality so it might meet you tastes."

"I wouldn't count on that, Haruhi." Suddenly a note was thrusted into her hands.

_Just because the package says 'special' _

_doesn't mean it's fancy sushi!_

_**Be Very Careful!**_

It was signed with a crown. Three guesses who it was. Of course, Haruhi sensibly threw the paper that was wasted with that message in the garbage. "I know that! How stupid do you think I am?" Haruhi was no pleased.

Of course, my patience with Tamaki was wearing thin, too. Not that it was that much of a feat, but I wasn't really eager to be eating lunch with him. "Father… Father just didn't want you to embarrass yourself. I'm trying to be as tactful as possible!"

"Tamaki, I don't think the words tactful or subtle are in your very limited vocabulary. You're just making a bigger fool of yourself than usual by pretending you know anything about a 'commoner's lifestyle'. It's pathetic and you're dragging Hikaru and Kouru down along with you with your antics."

Tamaki began crying in a corning sobbing, "So cruel… so cruel…" I began muttering darkly in English using some very choice swear words when Hunny came over to Haruhi and I.

"I want to have a meal made by you and Heather, Haru."

"Okay, but it will take a while," Haruhi answered.

"What to make, though," I mused. "And we'll have to go to the market again." I sighed. Our nice, quiet afternoon was quickly demolished by the Host Club, but it was, at the very least, fun to insult Tamaki. Plus, I got a chance to talk to Mori as we waited for Haruhi and Tamaki to come out of the apartment.

Unfortunately, I didn't notice a certain red-headed tranny running into Hikaru and Kouru.

Inside, after the fiasco with Tamaki and Ranka, Ranka was introducing himself to all the Host Club members. "Kyoya and I talk over the phone and email each other, we sure do! This is the first time we've met in person, though and you're even more gorgeous than I imagined."

"You're a beautiful person, too, Ranka. Thank you for those photos, by the way." Photos?

I knew that Kyoya had been calling, Ranka understood that I wouldn't mind, but I knew nothing about any photos. It must have been before I met the Host Club. Though, from the sound of it, it couldn't have been long before I met the host club.

"Hold it right there, dad!" shouted Haruhi. "You never told me you knew Kyoya! - "

"I never told you either," I said with a raised hand.

"It's because you never talk about school, Haruhi! Papa was worried," Ranka whined.

"And you knew about it!" Now her anger was directed at me.

"I didn't know that you didn't know. Plus, I assumed that you would think it was that big of a deal."

"You know better, Heather! You were once a phsychological genius! You must at least know I wouldn't want dad and Kyoya talking without me knowing! And Tamaki, will you please stop cultivating mushrooms in the closet!"

Ranka, at this point, was going into over-protective-father-mode. "Haruhi…. you are so cute when you're angry!"

"Come on, Heather!" Haruhi dragged me out the door. "We're going to the market and no one else is coming with us!"

"We won't escape them for long," I said.

"I know."

"Once, you're friends with this bunch, you can never escape them no matter how hard you try."

"I've known that since the day I broke that vase."

I smiled at her. "At least the both of us know that there's one other sane female among us."

"Yeah."

The rest of the afternoon was spent eating lunch with the club members and it was one of the most enjoyable afternoons of my life. I didn't even have to verbally bash Tamaki and make him feel uncomfortable because Ranka did that for me. Excellent.

**Author: Okay, thanks for the reviews, this is by far one of my most popular stories!**

**Heather: You know, you might get more reviews if I got more time alone with Mori…**

**Author: Not going to happen. You haven't even had your first kiss yet!**

**Heather: And why not?**

**Author: Because you're not going to have your first kiss for at least another volume, or chapter wise, a few more chapters.**

**Heather: You're cruel! I want to kiss Mori!**

**Author: I know I'm cruel and that's just too bad for you! *laughs maliciously* Anyway, all I have to say is review!**

**Heather: You better start updating faster. Otherwise, it will be December before I get to kiss him! (Currently, it's July)**

**Author: Hey, I have four other stories that I have to update as well as this one, and plus it's already January or something in the manga! **

**Heather: *pouts* Good point. Well, thanks to all you readers for actually reading this far and I hope that this idiot updates faster.**

**Author: Who are you calling an idiot? I happen to be quite intelligent.**

**THANK YOU!**


	16. Chapter 16

I was just about to leave Music Club after school when Ishiyama-sensei went flying past me trying to catch a student who had accidentally forgotten their rosin. **(Rosin is used in orchestras. If you're curious, look it up.)** While she flew past me, she inadvertantly knocked me down to the floor, all the papers in my bag soaring into the air. Crap.

"And next time remember not to leave your rosin lying around, Takeshima!" Ishiyama-sensei yelled as she strolled back into the room. "Oh! Isenroff, you've fallen onto the floor, you must be more careful!" I knew it was no use trying to explain to her that it was actually she who knocked me down. "Oh well, I'll help you gather your papers!" She was so loud that it was hurting my ears.

It was difficult making sure that I had all my papers and notes, but I knew that I at least had all my homework that had to be finished tomorrow. Ishiyama paused when she looked at one of the papers she had picked up. "Heather, I didn't give you this piece in class, did I?" she asked. Oh, god, she was looking at the pieces I had written for the Host Club.

"Umm, can I have those back?" I asked quietly.

"Isenroff! Did you write these yourself?" she demanded.

There was no use lying to Ishiyama and I really didn't want to suffer her wrath for trying, so I told the truth. "Yes, I wrote them."

"These are brilliant!" she cried. "We must copyright them immediately!" She began twirling around the room. "Imagine if one of my students became a famous composer! Promise me that you'll invite me to all the parties, Isenroff!"

I had a feeling that being a famous composer wasn't quite as glamorous and party-filled as she imagined. "Um, Ishiyama-sensei, I don't think - "

"Promise me now!"

"Yes," I squeaked.

"All righty then. I'll photo-copy these and have them copyrighted. Within a month I'll have a CD with all the songs on it. Bye-bye then!" She shoved me out of her classroom with my bag and my mind was buzzing with confusion. I had a slow reaction time to everything, so it would probably be a while before I registered that my songs were getting copyrighted. At least I'd written everything for the Host Club, including my special song for Mori.

I wearily made my way to Music Room Three so I could finish my homework while I waited for Host Club activities to finish. A slightly cool breeze brushed my face. To me, it was kind of strange for it to be this warm in February. I had lived in northwest Montana and it was much colder there this time of year.

Upon entering Music Room Three, I was flooded with a familiar environment: The twins were pretending to flirt, Tamaki was being an idiot, Haruhi was trying to be free of her debt, Kyoya was as cool and calculating as ever, Hunny was eating cake, and Mori wasn't there - he was at kendo club - but if he were there, he'd be completely silent. Ah, familiarity.

All the females seemed even more excited than usual. Why? I wasn't aware that there was any special event going on today and Kyoya usually told me if they were doing anything out of the ordinary.

I walked over to Haruhi to overhear her talking to Tamaki. "Hunny is in a great mood, isn't he? But he eats chocolate every day and night, what's the big deal about valentine's day?" Oh, yeah, valentines day was coming up…OH MY GOD VALENTINES DAY WAS COMING UP! I usually never paid attention to what I had previously dubbed 'singles awareness day', but now I had a boyfriend, and I didn't even know how they celebrated valentines day in Japan!

"Innocent Haruhi," Tamaki sang. "Valentine's day is the day when his barometer for chocolate hits the top. Besides receiving chocolate is a huge compliment for any man, right? I'm fully aware it's all part of the plan set out by the Japanese chocolate industry, but a sweet-hearted maiden cannot help but join in the throng. Can't you hear it? The heartbeats of anxious young ladies as they wrap their chocolates in tiny hopes and dreams."

"That's creepy, Tamaki," I said.

"Oh, right. You have super-sonic hearing!" Haruhi exclaimed.

"Incidentally," continued Tamaki. "I love any kind of chocolate, but I'd be happier with home-made!" He said this all with such enthusiasm that it was almost sad that he probably wouldn't receive any chocolate from Haruhi. She didn't say anything, so he figured he had to repeat himself. "I'd be happier…"

"You don't have to repeat it. I heard you. So what's your point?"

"Er…well…I was wondering if Haruhi was going to give chocolate to her father…"

"Of course. I'd better get some for my real father. He expects it every year."

"Oh, I didn't know that Ranka would want chocolate. Do you think I should get him some, Haruhi. I mean, he took me in when I moved back to Japan."

"You don't have to, Heather-chan." Haruhi smiled at me. Our friendly relationship had only strengthened when Haruhi came over to my house.

"Oh, no, I want to get Ranka something."

"By the way, how do Americans celebrate Valentine's day?" Haruhi asked. Suddenly the entire room became quiet - a first - and all the customers looked at me.

"Well, er," I stuttered. "As far as I know, most Americans don't take Valentine's Day as seriously as the Japanese do. And, there's no white day, so no one is obligated to give anyone chocolates. I always gave some to my family and my friend, though. Which reminds me, they've been begging me to send them some Japanese candy!"

Tamaki, who had, until just two seconds ago, been sulking, quickly raced over to me and asked, "Heather? Will you give daddy some chocolates?"

"Maybe," I answered. "I'd forgotten about Valentine's day until just now so I haven't bought anything yet. Even if I have the time, though, I don't know if I'll be buying you any chocolate, Tamaki."

He began, once again, sulking in a corner, and I began panicking. Should I get chocolates for Mori? I was definitely serious about him, but was he serious about me? I had never gotten myself worked up over Valentine's day, but I guess there was a first for everything.

Abruptly, Hunny cried out in pain. I raced over to try and get him to open his mouth. It had to be a cavity, what else could it be? And Hunny was in absolute denial.

Then, Mori walked in. "Mori, come quick. It's Hunny!" I said. Only Mori could exercise any control over him. Mori looked panicked as he rushed over to help open Hunny's mouth.

"Tamaki…" he said.

"Yes, understood. Until Hunny's cavity is taken care of, sweets are off limits. Also, to show our support, our club will refrain from participating in Valentine's day this year.

Hunny began crying. "No, Takashi, that my cake! It doesn't hurt! It doesn't hurt!"

Mori got a cold look on his face, that I had never seen before. "It's prohibited." Now Hunny truly began bawling.

* * *

After club was over, I was walking up to Mori. "Mori…"

He ignored me, took Hunny, and left. Presumably going home. I felt like he had stabbed me in the chest. Why had he ignored me? I hadn't done anything to upset him, had I?

**Author's Note: Okay, I'll be heading off to go on a vacation soon and will not be back for several weeks. Meaning, my dear readers, that I will not be able to update. Anyway, I'll be updating this story, as well as my others, as much as I can when I get back and I apologize in advance for the long wait. But, I'll be even faster to update when I get back if I see a lot of reviews :D **

**Heather: I wanted to give him chocolate…but that would be insensitive…if Hunny can't have chocolate, then Mori won't have chocolate…and he's ignoring me…*tear***

**Author: It's okay, Heather, you'll understand in time…**

**Heather: And how long is that?**

**Author: … Next chapter…**

**Heather: Oh. Wait, if Hunny's cavity clears up before Valentine's Day, should I give Mori chocolate?**

**Author: Most definitely. You've been dating since, like, August, right? *Heather nods* Okay, that's seven months.**

**Heather: Wow, it feels shorter.**

**Author: Yeah, because you've only been dating a few chapters of my story. Anyway, feel free to ask any questions if I've confused you in any way, or if you just feel like it!**


	17. Chapter 17

Along with Haruhi and the twins, I watched how strict Mori was with Hunny. "Mitsukini, your bag."

"I can carry it."

"That's not it." He took the bag and a giant mound of sweets appeared beneath the spot where he dumped the bag. It was then that I learned that I was only aware of a fraction of the sweets that Hunny consumed.

"I didn't realize Mori could be that firm. I never thought he'd do anything to upset Hunny. He's even put Tono in line," Kouru mused.

"Is it all that surprising that Mori could put Tamaki in line?" I asked. "He respects Mori."

Suddenly, the twins, who seemed to only just have noticed me, turned towards me with demonic grins on their faces.

"So, Heather," Hikaru began.

"Any theories as to why Mori would be acting so out of character?" Kouru finished.

My cheeks flushed and I shook my head adamantly, only to have myself attacked by them in a similar fashion as how they attack Haruhi. "Tell us! Tell us!"

"I don't know! I don't know! All I can say is, I don't think he's acting this way just because of the cavity!"

Their demonic grins reappeared and I knew that I had said the wrong thing. Hikaru was the first to speak. " 'Not acting this way just because of the cavity' you say?" My cheeks grew even redder and their evil smiles became even wider.

"Perhaps Mori's having some kind of emotional frustration then?" Kouru continued.

"Now what, or who, could possibly distress Mori aside from Hunny?"

"Could it be," they said simultaneously. "That Mori is having romantic problems?" They both put one hand on each cheek with a mock look of shock on their faces. "What happened?" they demanded. "Did you break up! Or…" I sensed that they were getting ready for their embarrassment finale and closed my eyes in preparation. "Could this be sexual?"

"No no no no no no no no no no! Would you guys quit it! I have no idea what's going on!" After that they probably had no idea what I was saying because, in my torment, I had switched back to my other language - English.

"What's wrong with you two? You don't have to harrass Heather just because you want to know what's going on with Mori." Haruhi, my hero.

* * *

Throughout the next few days, Mori remained distant with me and, along with Hunny, I began to slip into a slight depression. It would have been different if he had just talked to me, but since I had no idea why he was mad at me, there was no avoiding a gloomy mood.

At one point, Hunny asked me for sweets. It wasn't direct, but it was easy enough to tell what he wanted.

"Heather-chan? Why is Takashi being so mean?" His eyes had tears in them. "What did I so wrong? What did I do to make him mad?" I felt like I had been stabbed. Not by Hunny's sadness, but by his words. Because they were the exact same words that I had been thinking since the day he got his cavity.

Thankfully, though, having a younger sibling makes you pretty immune to tears and pleas for sweets. "Sorry, Hunny. But you can't have any sweets until your cavity is better." I turned away and hurried to my next class while hearing other students muttering about how I had made Hunny cry.

* * *

After three days without sweets, Hunny collapsed. However, I didn't count those days as three days without sweets, I counted them as three days that Mori was mad at me. Of course, Tamaki was the only one stupid enough to go check and see of Hunny was okay. So, he was the one who got his hand bitten.

While Tamaki was running around with a rabid Hunny attached to his hand, I heard an unmistakable, low voice say, "Mitsukini. Don't attack other things or people. It's disgraceful."

What happened next was something that even to this day, I'm not quite sure if I saw: Hunny flipped Mori over and slammed him to the ground. It almost would have been funny if I wasn't so worried about what this would do to Mori emotionally. "I hate you Takashi!" screamed Hunny as he ran off crying.

I gave Tamaki a look and he nodded, going off to find the distraught Hunny. I turned my attention to my boyfriend.

Something was off. For one thing, he was actually capable of some movement, and he still seemed to realize that we were there. Neither of those things would have been possible if something weren't fishy. Haruhi and I looked at each other and nodded. Together we said, "It was on purpose, wasn't it?"

Haruhi was the one who continued. "Mori made Hunny hate him intentionally."

The universe suddenly tore itself apart. Mori intentionally making Hunny hate him was like gravity suddenly deciding to take a vacation, impossible. However, the more Haruhi talked, the more it seemed to make sense. "Maybe Mori felt it was his fault Hunny got the cavity."

"It was my fault," he said. "Mitsukini's cavity was due to my negligence. I forgot to remind him to brush his teeth."

Brush his teeth?_ Brush his teeth?_ Hunny seriously needed to learn to grow up, if he couldn't remember to brush his own teeth.

Haruhi asked him if rejecting some girl who I knew nothing about was another way of punishing himself, and he nodded. I knew this sounded horrible, but I could care less how he rejected her so long as he rejected her.

Suddenly, I knew just how to get Mori to think straight. "All this time?" I asked. "All this time, and you weren't mad at me! I thought I had done something wrong! And this was some almost-kinda-creepy way for you to punish yourself for something that wasn't your fault in the first place! Hunny's what, 17? He should know to brush his teeth!" The glare I had for Mori was icier than most that I gave Tamaki.

I could hear the twins muttering. "That means that Hunny, the girl, and Heather were victims. For a second, it felt like he was the victim. What an odd way to cope. How exceptionally clumsy and troublesome of him."

"Boys are idiots." Mori knew that this comment was directed at him, and at the moment, I was happy that he knew I was mad at him. I stalked out of the room, passing Hunny, saying really dark things in English.

After a few moments outside of the club room, I calmed down quite a bit and slightly regretted being… less than nice to Mori. But, I didn't know where else to go, so I headed towards one of the music rooms that was actually in use - the one that had my instruments in it. There was no one there, so I would be able to think in solitude.

I walked over to the beautiful piano and began to play _Claire de Lune._ **(A/N: Cliché, I know, but I couldn't think of anything else for her to play on the piano.)**

**Mori**

Again, it was my fault. My fault that Heather was so upset. I hadn't even thought about how she would feel if I ignored her. Mitsukini had forgiven me, so I began looking around the school for Heather. This was the second time that Mitsukini had unknowingly gotten in the way of me chasing after an upset Heather. At least this time she wouldn't be getting on a plane to America, though.

I passed one of the music rooms and I heard some really beautiful music coming from inside. I peeked inside the door to see Heather playing on the piano inside. Was this how she had gotten her scholarship? The only academic scholarship was taken, she had never told us how she had been accepted into Ouran… and I remembered that when I had been in her house in America that there had been multiple instruments around the house. Amazingly, I had never once stopped to think that maybe Heather played any one of those instruments.

Whenever one song ended, Heather would play another, and another, and another. I didn't want to interrupt her, but it seemed that Heather would never stop playing unless she was interrupted.

"Heather." She glanced at me, but continued playing. I sat down on the floor next to her because, if she wouldn't talk to me, the least that I would like would be to look at her.

When she finished the song, she said, "Doesn't Debussy have a calming quality to it?" I nodded. "I'm sorry, Mori."

"Don't be, it was my -"

"If you say 'It was my fault' again, I will poison your next meal." I was silent. "You shouldn't blame yourself for everything, it's not healthy!"

"I'm sorry."

"If this is about ignoring me again -"

"No. I'm sorry that I put Mitsukini first."

"Oh."

"I have to always put Mitsukini first. I wanted to know if it's okay with you."

She waited a long time to answer me. "Yes, it's okay. Let's go out somewhere. Could you get our bags? I'll wait for you here." I nodded and went back to the third music room to retrieve our bags.

**Heather**

After Mori left, I looked down at the beautiful, clean black and white keys of the piano. Yes, Mori. It's okay for you to put Hunny first…for now. But, if it's only once in my life, I'd like you to put me first.

**Author's Note: I'm back from vacation! And I'd like to thank all my wonderful readers for all their beautiful reviews. I really do love every review I receive. And to Aurora -16, how did you know that I love cookies? Anyway, school will be starting for me in a week which means lots of other responsibilities outside fanfiction. So don't worry if it takes a while for me to update, it probably just means I'm busy with school-type stuff.**


	18. Chapter 18

Mori said that he had a good place for us to eat, and he almost seemed kind of excited about it. And so, because he was almost never excited, I decided that I would go wherever he wanted to go to eat.

**Mori**

Right when we stepped out of the limosuine - Heather really didn't like them all that much, but all the club members insisted - I covered Heather's eyes, desperately hoping that she would like her surprise. If she did, it might make up for all the pain I'd caused her these past few days.

I removed my hands from her eyes and they lit up almost immediately at eh sign hanging above the restaurant. She obviously could read it, even though I couldn't; I had never taken any English classes.

She giggled abruptly, though, and I instantly wondered what I'd done wrong. "I wonder if it's an American who owns this restaurant."

"Why?" I asked cautiously.

"Because, if they are, they have an odd sense of humor." She began laughing even harder, and it was quickly turning into a laughing fit. I gave her a questioning look.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she decided to elaborate. "This restaurant is called The Chubby American!"

Oh, no. I had messed up…again. How could one person do so much wrong in so little time? "I'm sorry. We'll go somewhere else." I felt a blush creep onto my cheeks as I realized how offensive Heather would find this. So stupid, you're such an idiot, I repeated to myself.

"Why? I think it's a funny name - let's go inside!" She packed a large amount of muscle for someone Haruhi's height as she dragged me into the establishment.

**Heather**

The waitress greeted us in both English and Japanese, reading off the specials and accidentally mispronouncing some of them. However, I cannot even begin to describe the comfort of being around - and smelling - some off the foods I had grown up eating. (Even though, it was a restaurant serving southern cuisine.)

"Thank you so much, Mori," I breathed. I had long since forgiven him for ignoring me, mostly because he hadn't seemed to figure my feelings into the equation, he hadn't intentionally hurt me. Really, _really_ stupid, but something that could be forgiven, nonetheless.

"You like it?" he seemed to be clinging to the possibility that I would enjoy my night here.

I gave him a smile that would portray my every feeling. "Of course. You almost always seem to know what to do."

"Why don't you hate me?"

"You were an idiot. Am I supposed to hate you for that? Tamaki's an idiot all the time and I somehow put up with him."

"Barely."

"It's enough. And besides, with family, it's more about tolerance than love, I've found."

"Do you tolerate me?"

"I love you, Mori. That's why." He gave me his most intense stare yet, as if to decide whether or not I was really telling the truth about my feelings. "Plus, no matter how hard I've tried in the past, I've never been able to hold a grudge for some reason. So, I stopped trying." He smiled. It was small, amused, but I hadn't seen him smile in days so this was a welcome relief.

"You wanted to give me chocolate," he said with a small chuckle.

"Yes." It was more of a sigh of defeat than an answer.

"Well, I can't accept any right now, but maybe once Mitsukini's cavity has healed, you can give me some. I'll be looking forward to white day when I can make up for everything."

I ordered my food and I ordered Mori's for him because he admitted he had never gone to any American restaurants before. "You really should order for yourself," I chided him gently.

"I don't know what anything on the menu is. I'll just have to trust you."

"You know, I think that's the most you've ever said to me." He smiled again.

When our food came, I was surprised to see what looked like the chef coming towards us. "I heard that there was an American here." He seemed excited as he addressed me in English. "What state?"

"Montana. And you?"

"Louisiana."

"Cool. "

"I really hope you like the food. I know how comforting it can be in a foreign country."

"Thanks. You own the place?"

"Yeah."

"You name it?"

He chuckled. "Yes. I figured it was fitting for an owner from the deep south."

* * *

That night I bought valentines chocolate for every member of the host club, Ranka, and I was sure to remember Kasanoda.

Kasanoda was on cloud nine when I gave him the chocolates, never having received them from anyone before. Ranka just gave me a suffocating hug. I saved all the chocolates for the club member for a few days after Valentine's day to give them their chocolates, once Hunny's cavity was better.

But, after the host club activities on Valentine's Day, Mori walked up to me. "Happy Valentine's day, Heather." He handed me a dark rose. Best. Valentine's. Day. Ever. No doubt about it.

* * *

"Oh. Ishiyama-sensei."

"Yes, Heather! I have the CD of all your songs!"

"Great." I was really tired after a long day of school, so I wasn't very enthusiastic.

When I got to the club room, Kyoya glared a glare that had never been glared before. "Because of you, our profits have absolutely plummeted."

"What?"

"The customers know nothing about you, so they find you scary." He didn't raise his voice, but that only made this conversation all the scarier.

"They find me scary?" He couldn't be serious. I wore Ghostbusters shirts, for crying out loud. Nobody could possibly find me scary. I was even shorter than a lot of the customers!

"Yes, I am perfectly serious. Either you find a way to make the customers less afraid, or you will have to loiter somewhere else until club activities are over."

"I have an idea. I don't like it, but I'll just have to do it."

"And just what do you have in mind?"

"You will owe me, Kyoya."

"Will I?"

"Yes."

I managed to catch the attention of one of the customers by fingering a few songs in the air. She managed to pluck up her courage to walk over at least. "What are you doing?"

"Fingering a new piece from music club."

"Really?" She seemed almost surprised that I wasn't scary.

"Yes."

"What instrument do you play?"

"I play the piano, the cello, and the viola."

"Could you…do you think…maybe play a song?"

"Sure, I'll play a few songs that I wrote." Kyoya, who had obviously been listening in on the conversation, looked over at me with a curious look on his face. "This is called 'The King'," I said, as I sat down on the piano bench. She looked enthralled by the fast-paced and loud song, and so did a number of other customers. They began to gather around the piano.

"Who'd you write that song for?" one of the girls asked.

"Tamaki."

"They squealed with delight."

"Wait. Tamaki-sama isn't…your boyfriend is he?"

I genuinely laughed at that. "Sorry, but Tamaki's not my type."

"Have you written pieces for all the club members?" asked another random girl.

"Yes I have."

After I played all my pieces, I told the customers my life story and they were all in tears by the end of it. Piece of cake.

"Told you you'd owe me Kyoya." I'm sure I had an unpleasantly smug look on my face after club that day.

"Very interesting approach."

"Girls will fall for a tear-jerker any day."

"Did you really write all those songs for the host club yourself?"

"Yep."

"That would be an interesting way to earn the money back that you cost us. Shall we make a deal?"

"Okay. How much money will you offer me?"

**Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait, everyone. School has proven far more taxing than I imagined. Meaning, highschool sucks. I hate all the homework because that cuts out of my 'lazy time.' *sigh* But I can't do anything about it.**

**Heather: You're an idiot. **

**Author: I was working on homework until 8 o'clock one night! (Seriously, it was my stupid Biology teacher, assigning us homework every night even though we haven't been in school an entire week.) Anyway, I can't make any promises about the next update, I really am trying to make it soon, though. Just don't abandon my story during the potentially long wait.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Mori**

It was early in the morning and I was practicing kendo when Tamaki called. "Haruhi and Heather went bankrupt and fled by night?" My entire mind went blank. For some reason, I could never imagine Heather going bankrupt, mostly because her family had actually seemed pretty well off when I had visited their house. But Heather was gone.

Gone. That word echoed in my head until I heard Kyoya say, "Haruhi and Heather are in Karuizawa." Wait, Karuizawa?

* * *

When we arrived at the pension, I heard Heather playing the piano. She was all right. I was so relieved, because, when Tamaki had called and said Heather and Haruhi were gone, I had gone into a sort of panic. When I walked into the room with the piano, Heather looked up at me with a smile. "Hi," Her voice was raspy, and it sounded sick.

"Are you okay?"

"Just a little sick."

"Then why are you playing?"

"Because it actually does make me feel better, believe it or not. Plus, Misuzu wants me to play the piano to attract customers. But, I guess I better go say hello to everybody." She got up and gave me a hug, standing on her tip-toes.

We walked over to the pension owner, I had my arm around her shoulder - a little difficult because of the height difference - and everyone was getting aquainted and getting the whole story. Apparently, Tamaki's story about Haruhi and Heather being kidnapped was completely false.

"So you're Ranka's friend from work?"

"How did you know that, Kyoya?" Tamaki was upset that, once again, Kyoya knew more about Heather and Haruhi's affairs than we did. I didn't really didn't it that personally.

"Why didn't you tell us you were coming to Karuizawa?" I asked.

"Well, Haruhi figured you all had better things to do than bug her. I was going to tell you, but she figured that if I told you, everyone else would find out that much faster. Sorry."

We had just walked in when Misuzu asked if we liked the aprons. It was only now that I noticed that both Haruhi and Heather had the frilly garments on them. (Neither of them looked too happy about it, especially Heather.) I still gave the thumbs up because I did secretly think that Heather looked lovely in something that was a little more on the feminine side.

Well, now at least I knew why they both had refused ours - Mitsukini's and mine - offer to go to Switzerland.

"You declined our offer to Bali."

"We invited them to Switzerland."

"I offered to let them stay at one of my family's private resorts cheap."

"HOW COULD YOU ALL EXTEND INVITATIONS TO DADDY'S GORGEOUS DAUGHTERS WITHOUT DADDY'S PERMISSION?" Tamaki looked like he had suddenly grown fangs, and looked even more upset when we all nodded. "WHAT ABOUT OUR SOLIDARITY? I WANTED TO PLAN AN ACTIVITY FOR EVERYONE!"

"Haruhi. Heza. You switched off your cell phones didn't you?" I didn't know that Heather had a cell phone, but then again, I also didn't know that the twins still called her Heza. Not that I didn't think she could afford it. She just didn't seem like she felt she needed it.

"It's too much trouble," Haruhi complained.

Heather seemed to take a similar attitude. "Cell phones are annoying. I didn't even want one when you two thrust one in my face." So she didn't want a phone after all, she was forced to take one.

"They have cell phones?" I think a part of Tamaki's soul died right then and there. Over two cell phones.

Then, the clever doppelgangers decided that they would kill another part of soul. "It's a friends only list." What childish logic. Heather probably didn't have anyone's names listed, thinking that it would be too much trouble. Plus, she probably thought that if she didn't have someone's number memorized, that she probably wouldn't need to call them.

After a lot of arguing about whether or not Heather and Haruhi would be allowed to keep their jobs at the pension, it was decided that the host club would be staying in Karuizawa.

**Heather**

"So, Kyoya, who do you think will win. I think that I've at least narrowed it down."

"To who?"

"Well, Hunny isn't all that refreshing. Plus, I don't think he could work hard if his life depended on it. Besides, he's used to getting what he wants, just by using his cute. Though, that can be said for a good deal of the members in this club. Getting what they want by using their looks. Anyway, Tamaki will never shut up, so he's out. So, I think it's between the twins and Mori."

"Yes, but Mori won't stay here if Hunny's not here."

"True." I felt a blush creep onto my cheeks. I had hoped that Mori would win. But, if he couldn't win, then I hoped the twins would win. I didn't like the idea of Tamaki sleeping under the same roof as me. I could imagine him trying to wake me up at the ungodly hour of four in the morning. "Well, whether Mori wins or not, estrogen calls. He's chopping wood topless and I don't intend to miss it!" Was I acting like one of the idiot host club customers? Yes. Did I care now that Mori didn't have a shirt on? Hell no.

Throughout the day, I watched all their attempts to be refreshing. Though, to Tamaki's - but mostly Kyoya's - credit, I thought that the refreshing act with Antionette was very refreshing. I didn't see as how it made a difference that he got some sort of lick attack from her, I thought it was cute that he loved his dog.

"Kyoya?"

"Yes?"

"You wanted to make things more interesting?"

"Of course."

"Well, seeing as how Tamaki screwed up your last plan, I'll give you an idea that Misizu is sure to find refreshing: Tamaki playing the piano. It was my job earlier today to attract customers by playing the piano refreshingly. I think that Tamaki can do that, at least, without screwing things up."

**Kouru**

**(Never written from his P.O.V. before.)**

I saw Heather walk over to a table where she could sit, away from all the refreshing chaos. She was talking on a phone, in English. Who could she be talking to?

I tiptoed over so she wouldn't be able to hear me. I listened to her conversation and was able to understand bits and pieces of it, but not enough to tell who she was talking to. But, alarms went off in my head when I heard her last sentence. "I love you!" she said enthusiastically.

Who would she be saying 'I love you' to? She hadn't seemed very close with her remaining family members that we had seen. Something was up.

I backed away, and when she hung up, she looked over at me and said, "Hi, Kouru."

"Ummm. Hi. Hey, is everything okay with you and Mori?"

"It's okay." She still sounded sick. Her voice was rough.

"Just okay. You don't have any problems?"

"Well…"

"Come on, Heather, I'm your friend."

"It's stupid and petty."

"I can still listen."

"Mori and I haven't kissed yet."

"What? You've been together a long time."

"I know. We've been on countless dates, and there have been plenty of times when we could have kissed, but he just didn't seem interested." Heather looked like she was about to cry.

* * *

I walked up to Kyoya. "Did you get Heather's call logs?"

"Yes I did. They proved to be very interesting. At least once a week, she calls a number in America. The phone is registered to a boy in America named Ross." A boy in America. Heather had said 'I love you' to a boy in America.


	20. Chapter 20

**Kouru**

I needed to tell Mori. Heather was cheating on him and he had to know. I didn't know how far things had gone with her and this Ross guy from America, but he needed to know. She disappeared after I heard her on the phone, but after Hikaru and I won the refreshing contest, I confronted Mori.

"Mori-senpai." He looked at me to show he was listening. "It's about Heather."

A panicked look crossed his face and he rushed closer to me. "Is she okay!" He almost yelled his question and it killed me to tell him.

"Heather's cheating on you."

His face was a blank slate. "What? No."

"Kyoya and I made dead sure. I overheard her talking to someone on her phone. It was a boy in America her age. She said she loved him over the phone."

Mori collapsed on the ground. Still conscious but unable to process the information I gave him. "I'm sorry." He stayed silent and just stared at me, the pain imminant on his face.

**Mori**

I woke up early the next morning to go to the pension and confront Heather. Kyoya had given me all the facts later and it was like I had been stabbed in the heart. It physically hurt. "Haruhi." I walked up to her. "Where's Heather?"

"Sorry, Mori. She's really sick. It looked like just a cold yesterday, but… Really, she'll be fine, but she needs to be alone."

"If she's sick, someone needs to keep an eye on her right?"

"She told me she could handle it."

"I need to check on her."

I walked up to her room at the pension, and opened the unlocked door. She was in the bathroom and I could hear her in the bathroom vomiting. I would wait to talk to her. She needed to focus on fighting her illness right now.

But, I could look at her sick and weak. It would just weaken my resolve to confront her after she had gotten better.

I quietly left the room.

* * *

I wasn't the only one who was having romantic issues at the moment either. Hikaru and Kouru both obviously loved Haruhi (and let's not forget Tamaki) and yet Kouru had managed to set Hikaru up on a date with her.

We followed them around and eventually Kouru realized that everything was fine and was slightly bored by it all. As they dragged Tamaki away, I noticed Heather buying ice cream from the shop.

"Heather. I thought you were sick."

"I woke up around noon and felt a lot better. Ate a little something. Showered. And after making my room not smell like sick people, I decided to take a walk. And then to what to my eyes wondering should appear but the host club spying Hikaru and Haruhi's date." She laughed a little, but her voice still didn't sound quite right.

She order a chocolate ice cream and we began walking around together. During the hour we walked, my memory of what Kouru told me completely melted away.

But eventually, the memories came back and they stung even more than before. "Heather." She turned to face me, completely unaware of what I was going to ask her. "Why are you cheating on me?"

Her face seemed genuinely confused. "What?" Apart from that, she seemed at a loss for words.

"You're cheating on me. I know. Kouru told me."

"What the hell are you talking about? I would never cheat on you, Mori. Who the hell would I cheat with, Tamaki?"

"Ross. Kyoya tracked him down. You said 'I love you' to Ross."

"Ross?" She seemed incredulous that I would suggest such a thing. "Ross? Seriously? I can't believe this!"

"You can't believe that you were caught."

"Ross was the only friend I ever had in America!"

"How do I know that you aren't lying."

"He's gay, Mori. Ross is gay. If he's going to be interested in anyone, it's going to be you. We're like gal pals. Talk about which guys are hot. And you're one of the only people I talk about with him. He's jealous."

"He's gay?"

"Yeah. I'll call him right now and you can talk to him. He knows japanese." She dialed the number and an undeniably gay sounding voice answered in English.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's Heather," she said in Japanese.

"Heather, hey girl! Why are you speaking in Japanese?"

"Mori's here. On speakerphone."

"Oh. My. Gawd!" He squealed over the phone. "Girl, has he come out of the closet?" He seemed really eager.

"No, he just wanted to say hi."

"Well, hello handsome!"

I didn't say anything, but when she hung up a few minutes later, she asked, "Convinced?"

I believed her. And I felt ashamed of myself. "Why did you say you loved him?"

"I said it like a girl says to her friend. Not like how I say it to you."

"Kouru seemed to think you had some sort of reason to be cheating on me."

"I said that I was a little upset because we haven't kissed yet. I want to kiss you, Mori." Tears flowed down her cheeks and the hurt on her face was so obvious it stung me too.

"I'm sorry, Heather."

"Why didn't you just ask me if I cheated on you. You believed them."

"Kyoya seemed to think that there was a possibility you had."

"Kyoya can be wrong, it seems."

"Heather -" The tears continued to stream down her face. "Heather, I'm sorry."

"Why would I cheat, Mori? You're perfect, so why would I cheat. Admittedly you're a little dense, but all boys are like that. I love you, but if you loved me, you'd trust me."

"I do love you." I kissed her passionately on the lips and the tears stopped flowing and eventually dried. "And I trust you, too."

**Heather's Monologue**

(Because Mori and Haruhi both got one.)

Well, I had an eventful vacation in Karuizawa, Japan. The host club stalked me and Haruhi there, and I got sick which was a real bummer because I had been hoping for either some peace and quiet, or some romantic time with Mori.

After I got better, Mori accused me of cheating. (Not fun. Thanks Kouru and Kyoya.) And I finally got my first kiss with Mori. May there be many more to come.

**Also… Ouran Corps Host Ranger:**

**Heather White**

**Deadly moves: clever comments, music that ensnares the senses, can fool anyone, words that cut you to the bone**

***The only Ranger who can use Musical type attacks. Can fight her way out of just about any situation. Often known to plan attacks with shadow leader: Kyoya Black.**

**Author's Note: Hope you liked it! And Heather finally got her kiss!**


	21. Chapter 21

Today some strange events happened at the host club…

**Extra Episode: Mori's Secret!**

I had been doing my homework in the host club as per usual, and Mori had his usual, slightly sexy, look of contemplation on his face as he stared out the window.

I still didn't like the him hanging around so many flirtatious girls. However, I felt a little better about it now that I had one-upped them by actually having kissed Mori. Score one, Heather! Frivolous girls, zero! (Insert Heather Happy Dance…)

Alas, though, my momentary happiness was shattered by a snippet of conversation I heard.

Some girls asked Mori, "It looks cold over there by the window. Let's come over here and have some tea…"

The next phrase I heard was earth shattering, and said in a very un-Mori-like voice. "Thank you. You're so sweet." What!

And I wasn't the only one in shock, the customers and Haruhi were both beyond speech. Haruhi went running to Tamaki and he spewed more ridiculous father crap. "Hey! Daddy is working. Haruhi, you really like daddy don't you?"

She turned around and ran into Mori and unpredictably, he said, "You okay? Haruhi you're so small…be careful."

"I'm sorry…"

"No need to apologize. I meant that you're cute." What! Now everyone was in panic mode, including myself. Hikaru, Kaoru, and Tamaki were scrambling, screaming something about robots when I ran over to Mori, undoubtedly looking distressed. "Heather, beautiful, are you okay? You look upset."

"I… Ummm…."

"I just don't see why something so sexy as you would ever get distressed. It's adorable. And you're adorable."

"Uhhhh…" I felt a hot, tomato-red blush creeping onto my cheeks.

He gave an almost seductive grin and ran his fingers along my jaw and under my chin. He was about to kiss me, when Hunny interrupted. And it's a good thing he did. If Mori had kissed me, the rest of the customers might have attacked me in a fit of jealous rage.

"Takashi, are you tired?"

"I think so."

And with that, Mori slept for an hour and didn't remember anything afterward. It seems that Kyoya and Hunny are scary when they wake up and Mori is scary when he's tired. And Tamaki was just scary 24/7.

* * *

We were playing a game a rich man, poor man and I had proved to have a knack for the game. Haruhi was a beginner also, but she was in destitute while I had gotten off halfway well - for a beginner - and was every man with Mori.

"For the next two weeks, Haruhi and Heather are to be my slaves ." Kyoya currently had his Shadow King grin on and I knew there was no stopping him.

"Hey!" Haruhi and I were not happy having the title of 'slave' slapped on us. "We have our own projects to be doing!"

The twins rambled on about class 1A's project and about how they were in charge of the costume design. I was trying to make a swift and silent escape when I heard them say, "And Heather is in charge of the music - not that that's a surprise." Damn it! They completely ruined my amazing escape! "Isn't that right Heza-chan?"

I paused mid-tiptoe and turned my head slowly. "Yeah, it took all of an hour considering it was background music, not meant to be a showstopper. Plus, Haruhi and I were both put in charge of the mystery plotlines. Because, apparently, composing the music isn't enough," I muttered.

"Heather-chan! Heather-chan!" Hunny was jumping up and down in excitement. "Do they do class projects in schools in America?"

"My school didn't, though I don't know. Maybe some private schools do them."

Kyoya chuckled and gave an even scarier Shadow King grin and said, "So, Haruhi, Heather, you will aid me in uncovering the true culprit, agree?"

I gave him my own fake smile. "Well, considering you'll probably threaten us with something, then we don't have much of a choice."

* * *

There was a lot of stuff going on with the different classes and clubs putting on elaborate projects that showed the student's use of money and man power. At this point I was really glad that I would never have to deal with any of this crap. It seemed to be more trouble than it was worth. Haruhi agreed, and we had a small rant on rich people and their idiocy together. (Very enjoyable.)

Later, when Haruhi realized that the host club was in the race for the central salon, her mood dropped substantially. I, however, was unaffected. It was only when Kyoya mentioned the hate mail that things began to affect me more.

"Haruhi, if you can't find him, your debt will be doubled. Tamaki you will become my slave for the rest of your life. And Heather, you will never be able to step foot in the host club room again. I still haven't forgotten your near-kiss with Mori in front of the customers on the afternoon when he was tired. I'm considering actually not letting you two date anymore."

"What! You may be able to ban me from the club room, but you can't prevent me and Mori from dating!"

"I have ways," he said in an ominous creepy way that made me shiver.

"Well… when you put it that way…"

So that's how I got stuck in between Haruhi and Tamaki - being used as a shield by Haruhi - and Tamaki obviously had other intentions besides catching the person harassing the club. I looked at the evidence for a few minutes and was about to say something when I was brutally interrupted by the rest of the club members who arrived to make sure that Tamaki and Haruhi didn't get too much 'alone time'.

Trying to make another escape was seeming like a pretty good idea at this time, but I was foiled once again when the football club suddenly arrived. I personally was a little surprised that such a lame sport was popular in any place besides America, but whatever they were here for, it couldn't be good. And, it was probably going to throw my theory right out the window.

**Author's Note: Sorry about the chapter, and I know that it definitely wasn't one of my better ones. And I'm also sorry about the long wait, I've got to start working on that.**

**Heather: I still don't see why you decided to incorporate me into this part of the series, I'm not even in the club.**

**Author: … But I like this part…**

**Heather: That's no reason to include me…**

**Author: Ha! But I have an excellent (Though, admittedly not very creative) way of incorporating you in! Tune in next time I update! (Though, it could be a while. I have recently become a very busy person.)**


	22. Chapter 22

"Damn, it's Kuze," I muttered.

"You know him?" Hikaru and Kaoru looked surprised.

"Yeah." I was now gritting my teeth wishing that I could stab him with an object that was particularly sharp.

"Well why do you hate him," the host club asked.

"Yeah, I don't even know you!" Kuze was as idiotic as ever. "And you don't even go to this school. Look she's not wearing a uniform."

Before I could say anything, Kyoya stepped in for an explanation. "This is Heza Isenroff. Prefers to go by Heather. She is in class 1-A on scholarship and has a locker right below yours. The reason she chooses not to wear a uniform is that she finds the female uniforms to be unattractive, sexist, and ridiculously expensive. She is well known for her exceptional skill in music and is part of the music club. Earns good grades, considering she is still learning how to read the Japanese language."

"The reason I don't like you Kuze is a number of reasons. You and your football buddies are constantly tripping me and running into me in the halls. All that orange gunk drips from your locker into mine and ruins my homework! One morning I left my cello on the ground and you accidentally broke the bridge and the bow! They were not cheap to fix!" I added a lovely American swear word at the end of my sentence. "You never offered to pay for damages, or even apologized for anything!"

"I did all that?"

"Yes and despite that, this is the first time you've even noticed me." I gave him my icy winter glare and he gulped. "Music club starts in five minutes, so I need to go Kyoya."

When I got to the music club room, I some really bad news, for me that is. "Guess what, Heather-san?" Ishiyama asked as she danced around the room. (All the musicians were careful to keep their instruments away from her path of destruction.)

"What?"

"The music club has entered the race for the central salon! Isn't it wonderful?"

"I'm not so sure wonderful is the word I would use…" _Kyoya is going to kill me and hang my entrails all across the school for this. _

"But Heather-san, music club needs funding from the school, and if we impress the parents, then the school will fund us!"

"You're telling me that in a school full of super rich kids that the music program isn't getting enough money?"

"We have just barely enough! We need more! And if we get more, I may be able to fund you, Heather! You're a young and refreshing composer, you'll be invited to all the parties, and as your teacher, I will share in your glory!" Her eyes got a sparkly, dreamy quality to them. I think she was living back in the days of Bach and Beethoven when classical music composers were superstars.

So, instead of actually practicing music, the club began thinking up strategies for how to beat other clubs. How terrific.

**Mori**

I was now more motivated than ever to beat the football club. Why hadn't Heather ever mentioned her confrontations with them before? I also would have been more than willing enough to help with the expenses of instrument repairs.

What was even worse was that I had noticed the bruises on her and she had just said that she tripped in the hallway. It hadn't occurred to me then, but Heather is not a clumsy person. It was extremely unlikely that she would trip so badly that it would leave the nasty bruises. I walked up to Kyoya. "Did you know about Heather and Kuze?"

"I knew that he was so thick that he didn't notice her, and I knew that he had done damage to her instrument."

"Why didn't she say anything?"

"What's most likely is that she wants to handle problems herself. She also probably sees it as easier to handle than the tiger shark. I wouldn't push her about it. Because, she can handle it by herself and it's probably just an annoyance to her."

Just then Heather stumbled in with a distressed look on her face. "The music club has entered the race."

Kyoya gave another one of his fake smiles. "Well then, in that case, Miss Isenroff, you are not allowed in this room until after the race," he said while sipping tea.

"What!" Heather yelled. "Come on!"

"You might cheat, and try to sabotage our strategy."

"Why would I do that? You have to know that I'm not really all that motivated to win."

"I'm afraid I _don't_ know that. Now please leave the room."

She sighed and walked out of the room at a very brisk pace for someone so short.

"Did you really think that she would try to spy on us?"

"Of course not. But she should become more motivated and at least try to make her team noticed so that the school will fund them."

"Fund them?"

"The music teacher is trying to hide it, but funding for the music is very low and they're considering cutting the program. This year we can't throw the competition for Heather, though. " I didn't see why it was such a big deal. Heather would be disappointed but, she would still be able to become quite an accomplished composer even if she wasn't in music club anymore. "I don't think you understand Mori. If there's no music program, then Heather won't be able to go to Ouran anymore."

* * *

On the day of the competition, the host club showed up in outfits that were hard to move. It wouldn't hinder Mitsukini and me, but the others weren't nearly as athletic. I looked longingly over at Heather. The music club didn't even have uniforms. Come to think of it, they didn't even have uniforms for their concerts, so they all had to buy their own clothes.

"Let the race begin!"

The host club did pretty well in the first competition. Heather and Tamaki were lined up to answer the questions. Heather was actually the third person so answer a question correctly. I was cheering her on inside my head. What was I going to do, though? The host club needed to win, Kyoya made that quite clear, but the music club also needed to get funding from the school, desperately.

Tamaki and a different contestant from the music club tried to ascend the slope, but failed. This was terrible, at this rate both the host club and the music club wouldn't win. But then, I saw a calculating look on Heather's face. She had a plan, and if she had a plan, it would probably work.

"Are you ready Takashi?"

I looked down at Mitsukini and said, "Just one moment." I needed to see if Heather made it first.

She had some kind of shiny object in her hand and she was digging it into the slope as a grip. I could hear the boy from the student council. "And Isenroff uses a cello endpin to climb up the slope. How creative!" Then I lifted Mitsukini to the top. "It's a miraculous show of teamwork between Morinozuka and Haninozuka!" We both made it past the first round.

Heather was involved in a few more activities, after the first site. On the third site, she was the one doing the tightrope walking, and she was perfect. I wasn't involved in any of the activities for that site, so I just watched her. After she was done with her tightrope walking, I walked up to her. "I'm surprised you're not doing the memorization. I thought musicians were good that."

"Oh, I suck at memorizing. One of my faults as a musician. My teacher always gets mad at me for it."

"Good job."

"Thanks." She smiled and because no one was looking, she kissed me and started running - pretty fast too! - towards the fourth site.

Finally, after the fourth site, I heard the student council member announce: "I can't believe it! There is a three-way tie between the football club, the host club, and the music club! We all knew that football club and the host club would be facing off, but it appears that we have a dark horse - the music club!"

We all had a few minutes before we had to do the final race and I found Heather sitting by herself, eating lunch. "Why are you eating alone?"

"I'm not supposed to be interacting with the host club, remember?"

" I really don't think you could do much to sabotage or spy on us at this point."

"True, but I fear Kyoya's wrath." We were out of anyone's line of sight, so I wrapped a comforting arm around her. This seemed to make her remember something she wanted to say. "I hate having to hide our relationship. It's just annoying."

I smiled. "It's as much for your safety as it is for business."

"Yeah, I know. I certainly wouldn't be happy if I was attacked by rabid fangirls, but I still hate it."

"We could go somewhere this weekend if you'd like."

She smiled her beautiful, perfectly white smile and said, "Sure. Where to?"

"There's this really good zoo slash aquarium a little outside of Tokyo."

"Sounds great." She made a face that looked like panic. "Mori. Someone put strawberries in my lunch."It took all of a millisecond to remember how horribly allergic she was. I picked her up and started running towards the crowd. Someone would have a cell phone and could call an ambulance.

It took less than a minute for her throat to close up and for her to have trouble breathing. I had to give credit to some of the students. They handled the emergency quite well.

After the ambulance had left, with Heather in it, I was about to call my chauffeur to take me to the hospital, when Kyoya put a hand on my shoulder. "Mori. Please help us finish this, we may need you. Besides, Heather wouldn't want the host club to lose, right?" I nodded and decided I would help them find the crown. After that, though, I was heading straight to the hospital.

* * *

Immediately after Tamaki got the crown, Kanan, Kuze's fiancee admitted to slipping strawberries into Heather's lunch. "A few of the student council members have access to student records. They saw that she was allergic to strawberries. I swear I didn't know she was that allergic!" Kanan was practically in tears, so I placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Heather will be fine."

After that, I headed to the hospital.

**Author's Note: Yay! I'm excited to finish this volume because after this, Haruhi and Heather get to meet Satoshi and Yasuchika! And Heather and Mori and the rest of the host club are going to the zoo/aquarium soon as well! Fun!**

**Heather: You're in a particularly good mood considering the fact that the music club won't have funding.**

**Author: You'll see! *singsong voice***

**Heather: You're so annoying.**

**Author: Am not!**

**Heather: What I don't get is how you could be writing a romance when you've never had a romantic relationship before.**

**Author: I'm hurt! Besides, at this point I only know two boys in the world who aren't dickheads, and I have my eye on one of them!**

**Heather: I doubt he's interested in you romantically.**

**Author: True. Oh, well! Hope you enjoyed the chapter and I'll be looking forward to reviews. **


	23. Chapter 23

The doorbell rang while I was eating breakfast and, holding my banana, I opened the entrance to our house. Now, what I should have done was barricade it because it was Tamaki that rushed through. "My sweet-hearted daughter! Daddy was so worried about you, and he had no idea that you were allergic to strawberries! What an awful thing for Kanan to do!"

My fruit went flying across the room as I was accosted by his love. "What a waste." Staring at my ruined meal. "I'm fine, Tamaki. This isn't the first time I've had an allergic reaction. Though, as often as I'm finding strawberries in my food, I'm considering carrying an antihistamine with me." The rest of the host club began to file in shortly after they realized that Tamaki's rampage of love was over. "Why are you guys here, anyway, besides to have Tamaki ruin my breakfast."

"Daddy was just concerned about his daughter's well-being!" He then proceeded to sulk in his emo corner. How mature.

"We're going to that one place I told you about." Well, at least Mori was here. He often acted as my human shield against Tono's stupidity.

"Oh, okay. I'll be ready in five minutes."

On my way out I could hear the twins grumbling. "She'll be ready in five minutes? That's horrible! We spend an hour each day getting ready and she has the audacity to take only five minutes!" Deal with it, Doppelgangers!

On our way to the zoo, our conversation drifted to a topic of a much less lighthearted nature. "So, how's the music club doing?" A devious grin crept onto Kyoya's face. What was that boy up to?

"Well…" A blush crept onto my cheeks. Ishiyama-sensei was trying to keep our desperate situation as quiet as possible.

"I hear it's been doing a lot better." My confusion must have been apparent, because he elaborated. "You know how we had you play piano in the central salon, correct?"

"Yes," I said curtly. Kyoya was still threatening to take away my host club visiting rights, so I was the live musical entertainment during the festival, at the central salon. Ishiyama-sensei had yelled at me for 30 minutes straight for that.

"Well, quite a few of the people coming through were interested in the talented young commoner who was playing the piano." Was he…? "So of course, it may have slipped once or twice that the music club, which was the entire reason for her scholarship here, was soon going to be no more, for lack of money. Such a shame, really, that young talent like that would be wasted, right? Well, as it turns out, after that, there were quite a few anonymous donations to the music club, and they now have more money than they know what to do with. Isn't it funny?" He really does try to make it so that everyone benefits, doesn't he?

I smiled. "Thank you, Kyoya."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

The guy may pretend to be a 'Shadow King', but deep down, he really is a softie. _Really_ deep down, but still there.

We arrived at the zoo, and Kyoya quickly managed to distract the other members so that Mori and I were alone. That boy was being a god send to me today. Mori and I quickly intertwined our fingers and began walking around. "Did you have fun at the festival?" he asked.

"Well, apart from having my sense of fashion criticized by Hikaru and Kaoru's mother, it was nice. They invited me to dinner, and she also invited me over to give her a model for her new clothes line." He looked surprised. "Yeah. Keep that surprised look plastered to your face." His face looked panicked again, and I sighed. "Oh, it's fine. I know that I'm not exactly model material."

"You're beautiful." His face was so serious and sincere that it was impossible not to laugh. "Why are you laughing?"

"It's nothing. Don't you worry about my self esteem. I didn't say that I was an ugly hag, I just said that I wasn't model material. Not in America, at least. I was surprised at the animosity that Tamaki's grandmother harbored towards him."

"I don't like her."

"The only person who does like her is Tamaki, and he can't hate anyone."

After that, he and I continued wandering, passing the animals from Africa and the animals from South America. We had just gotten to the animals from North America, many of which I had seen in the wild. Something was bothering Mori. I could see the anxiety on his face. "So, what's eating you?" An embarrassed look crossed his face. "Hey I'm one of the few people who can read your stoic face, get used to it. So, go on, out with it."

"I need help."

"What do you mean?"

"I have a D in English. I'm terrible with languages."

"Oh, if that's all, I have no problem helping you. I could help you study after school."

"Really?" He looked so happy.

"Sure, no problem. Just say the when and the where."

"Thank you."

It was quite a warm and nice, if not sunny, day. And it was delightful to get a date with Mori. With the rest of the host club occupied in other areas of the zoo, we were completely alone. However, our alone time had to come to an end eventually, and the rest of the host club had caught up to us by the time we had reached the aquarium portion of the zoo. And also by this time, it had started raining. We were all converged in a group, getting ready to go underground to see the aquarium, when we heard someone shout, "Out of the way!" Too late. The vehicle hit all of us and we were sent flying in all directions.

I realized pretty quick that I was about to land in some sort of aquatic pen, so I desperately reached for anything to grab onto. I managed to grab some wet rail just long enough to see what I was just about to fall into. As it turned out, I was about to fall into shark-infested waters. Tiger sharks.

My fingers slipped on the wet rail and I fell in. A panic consumed me and I convulsed in the water. I thrashed, I lashed and I could feel tears welling up in my eyes. No. I couldn't panic. That wasn't the answer. I had to stay calm. The sharks eyes my and began circling. I punched. I kicked. Narrowly escaping the jaws of one particularly large one. Distantly, I could hear someone shouting my name. But, I was focused on keeping them away from me, and trying to avoid drowning. Suddenly, I noticed a rope next to me, and I grabbed it.

My body was raised from the seemingly cold waters. My body felt numb. Not from any sort of cold, but from fear. Everyone was calling my name, asking if I was alright. I was sucking air in and out, breathing only because it was necessary. My eyes were wide.

But, as blood began to circulate through my body, and my mind began to clear, I spoke softly. "I'm alright. I'll be fine." I looked around at the concerned faces around me, and stood up. "Don't worry, I'm not going to die from fear, I'm not a sheep."

Relief. Concern. Joy. All on the faces of my friends. "It would seem I have the worst luck of anyone in the entire world. It's just one disaster after another isn't it?" I laughed. "Not to worry. I'm not going to die just yet. I still have things I need to accomplish." The owner of the zoo began to apologize profusely, and was just about ready to hyperventilate. "It's fine." I looked at Hunny's face. He was staring longingly at the ice cream stand not too far from here. "But, would it be too much to ask for ice cream? My clothes will dry soon enough in this weather." It had been a very brief rainstorm.

He agreed to give all of us ice cream for free, as an apology for the malfunctioning zoo vehicle.

Mori kissed me, and hugged me as if he were afraid I would suddenly disappear.

But, licking my chocolate ice cream, and him licking his vanilla, I sincerely hoped that this would be the last time that Takashi Morinozuka would have to worry about my well-being.

**Author's Note: I'm trying to make all of the accidents that Heather is in some sort of running gag, but I almost think that it's making her seem weak. If anyone out there thinks that it does make her weak, then tell me and I will stop with the 'running gag'. Anyway, sorry for the long wait on an update and I hope that no one has abandoned this story. Sorry!**


	24. Chapter 24

As promised, after school, I went with Mori to his house. After visiting many of the other members' homes, I expected Mori's to be equally extravagant. However, it proved to be the exact opposite. Simple, yet refined. I could tell that a lot of the things inside the home were expensive, but it was tasteful. And I could tell that everything there had a place, and everything on the wall had a historical story behind it.

"Your home is lovely," I breathed. He stayed silent, but I could tell he enjoyed the compliment. We walked up to his room, me nervous because I was in a room alone with a boy. Not that anything would happen, especially with the ever-courteous Mori. But still, it was a step forward in a relationship.

Mori wasn't a bad student, it was just obvious that he had a lot of trouble with the subject matter. But, through hard work, he seemed to get things a little easier after our session. "So, do you get this part now?"

"Yes…I think."

"Don't worry, you'll get it before too long, I'm sure. How often do you want to meet?"

"A couple times a week, maybe," he mumbled. I think he was embarrassed. Of course, if I were in his situation, I would be too. He usually gets really good grades, number two in his class. I doubted that he had ever needed to ask someone for help before.

"That's fine with me. Host club always goes longer than music club, so I'm open to anything."

"Thank you." There was so much passion in his voice, that it honestly delighted me.

"What else are girlfriends for?"

He gave me a short kiss on the lips. "How did you learn Japanese? Any tricks for me?"

"Well, I've heard that playing musical instruments can make it easier to learn a new language. And, when I tried to learn the language, I would listen to songs in Japanese, sing songs in Japanese, and eventually, once I got pretty good at the language, I knew most of the words in the songs."

"I could try the song thing…" he sighed. "Any recommendations?"

"Classic rock okay?" He nodded. "Then I'll burn a CD and give it to you tomorrow."

Just then I heard someone knock at the door. It was a maid. "Takashi-sama. Dinner is ready and your family is waiting for you downstairs." She noticed me sitting on the bed, and Mori sitting on the bed as well. "Is there going to be a guest?" Mori glanced at me and his face flushed as his eyebrows rose, questioning. I nodded. "Then I'll alert the others." She power walked out of the room.

Dinner at the Morinozuka house was a very formal affair.

I sat down quietly and politely, as his parents stared at me intently. Both had black hair and dark eyes, just like Mori, and his father had facial hair. They were both younger than my parents had been, but dressed like they were older, his father wearing a male kimono and his mother wearing a kimono, both very traditionally styled.

"Who is this, Takashi?" asked his mother.

Mori's face flushed a really deep red. "This is Heather. My…friend." Friend? Had he not told his parents that we were dating? His father's face stayed neutral, very similar to the way Mori's did, but his mother's eyes pierced into me like daggers, examining me like something dangerous.

His father nodded, understanding and his mother continued speaking. "I see. Yes, wasn't she the one who was attacked by a shark and rescued from the ocean?" Mori nodded, tacit as ever. "Well, it would seem that you are indebted to our son." Mori shook his head at a superhuman speed and his face was absolutely mortified. "Why are you so upset, Takashi? You saved this girl's life, of course she's indebted to you. Anyway, why is she here?"

"She's assisting me with my English. She is not indebted to me, nor should she feel that she is." Wow. That, for Mori, was like a normal person speaking for hours. I stayed mute and stayed out of it, though. This was a battle of the wills between him and his mother.

The rest of the meal was awkwardly silent, and I hadn't spoken once during the entirety of it. Afterwards, Mori lead me to the driveway, where a limousine was waiting for me. "I'm sorry about the way my mother behaved. I think she knew that I'm dating you and she doesn't want me to date."

"So, you didn't tell them?"

"No." He hung his head in shame.

"You know, you've been speaking a lot more lately."

"It's you." And by that, he meant that I was the root cause of his being more talkative.

"Will you ever tell them that we're dating? We're pretty serious about each other, right?"

"I'll tell them soon. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I bet it's scary trying to tell them that you're dating a foreign girl who isn't as rich as all the aristocrats who attend Ouran. Don't worry about it, I'm sure that you'll tell them when the time comes for you to." I gave him a hug and I kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you at school tomorrow. Love you." When I said 'love you' his face lit up, elated.

"I love you, too."

* * *

School had just ended and Ishiyama-sensei was ill, so I was free to spend the rest of the afternoon as I pleased, which, for me, meant finding a book on Beethoven in the library. As I was walking with a considerable stack of books (I had checked out too many books, and way more than I had intended to check out.), when suddenly, a complete stranger, who happened to be sprinting through the library, ran head on into me.

The books went flying and _I _went tumbling onto the floor. I had lifted my torso off the floor when I saw a hand in front of my face. I took it and the person who had knocked me over, helped me back up onto my feet. "Thanks," I mumbled.

"No need to thank me! It is unchivalrous to knock over a lady. It's disrespectful, which goes against the bushido code, and I _live_ by the bushido code! It is my utmost goal that I can be like my big brother. He is always so good to women, and they adore him." He was an odd one, but it hardly mattered, because he helped me gather my books, and was nothing but courteous to me, after knocking me over, of course. The sparkly eyes were slightly creeping me out, though.

"How rude of me! I've forgotten to introduce myself. I'm Morinozuka Satoshi!" he held his hand out and I shook it very slowly. I had thought he looked familiar. So, it wasn't because I knew him, it was because he resembled Mori quite a bit. And now that I got a good look at the kid, it was a miracle that I didn't see the resemblance in the first place.

"Isenroff Heather."

"I know who you are! You're the student from America who transferred here! Oh! Since you're a high school student, do you know my brother, Taka?"

"I do. I'm friends with all the members of the Host Club. He's a very good guy."

"Isn't he?" Satoshi was obviously so swept up with emotion that he didn't notice the funny look that I gave him.

We said goodbye and I headed towards the host club room as he began sprinting around looking for someone named Yasuchika again. I ran into Mori and Hunny in the halls, Hunny currently riding on Mori's shoulders. I waved nervously at Mori, worried about how things might be between considering how _wonderful _last night went. I honestly didn't know at all what kind of impression I made on his parents.

I had been agonizing over it all night. I knew that I hadn't exactly looked my best. At the end of the day, my hair tended to get a little frizzy, and my clothes had been anything but formal, whereas his parents had been so proper. Plus, I hadn't even had an opportunity to speak. I looked out of the corner of my eye to see how Mori was acting around me. I noticed that he was looking at me the exact same way and I felt my mouth give way to a small smile.

I still felt a little nervous and watched, a quiet spectator, as Hunny and Yasuchika battled it out inside Music Room 3. Laughing every once and a while at the absolute absurdity of it. Mori and I stole another glance at each other and we just shook our heads. Not because we were frustrated with the two of them, but because they were just acting so foolishly. I strolled over and linked my hand in his, because I knew we were still going strong.

Suddenly, though, I heard a distinct thumping sound, and Satoshi made his noisy entrance, sending Yasuchika flying into the air with his shinai. Well, if you're going to make a dramatic entrance, I suppose there are worse ways to do it.

Once Mori saw Satoshi enter, he released my hand and said, "Satoshi."

"Taka!" His eyes sparkled with admiration for his older brother. Quite the opposite of what Chika felt for his.

"Hi, Satoshi." I walked forward and waved. "Short time, no see. Wasn't it what, five minutes ago that I just saw you?"

"Heather-senpai! What a great surprise!"

"It shouldn't be that great, Satoshi. After all, I_ am_ friends with the Host Club, right? By the way, you don't have to call me Heather-senpai."

"Right. I noticed you don't use honorifics."

"Just call me Heather, and I'll just call you Satoshi. Call me unable to assimilate, but honorifics just don't come naturally to me."

"Of course! Whatever comes more naturally to you!"

I giggled. "I bet that you and Yasuchika are popular with the ladies. Are you going to join the Host Club once you are highschoolers?"

* * *

Once Satoshi and Yasuchika left, Mori and I had the room to ourselves. "When did you meet Satoshi?"

"Well, we ran into each other at the library and he didn't exactly make it a secret that he was your brother."

"You didn't tell him we were dating, did you?"

"Of course not. By the way, why wasn't he at dinner last night. I had assumed that you were an only child."

"The middle school had a kendo meet. I'd like to apologize for the way my mother treated you. And, I'd also like to make sure that you know that I will never let my parent's opinions get in the way of our relationship."

"I already knew that, all I ask is that you make sure to tell them, including Satoshi. If anyone in your family deserves to know, it's him. He is really sweet." Mori smiled, and placed his arm around my shoulder as we walked out of the room.

**Author's Note: Okay, I would have updated sooner, but Valentine's Day was so close that I figured I might as well update today, especially considering that this is a romance story. **

**But, if like me, it is Single's Awareness Day for you, fear not! You are among friends, and friends are always more important than a romantic partner, because when your romantic partner breaks up with you, your friends will still be there…most likely. :) Happy Valentine's (Single' s Awareness) Day!**


	25. Chapter 25

I was in the library again, studying for my trigonometry test, when I noticed Yasuchika and Satoshi studying together for a test as well. I knew that Mori would never get around to telling his family we were datingi f was concerned about the relationship between Hunny and Chika. So, I casually sat down with them, and attempted to start up a perfectly normal conversation. "You don't need glasses, do you Chika?"

"Don't call me that!" he cried. He looked deranged, but the look dissipated as soon as it had presented itself. "I apologize," he muttered. "That's what Mitsukini calls me. How did you know I didn't need the glasses?"

"Satoshi, could I have a minute alone with Yasuchika?" Satoshi left the table but conspicuously hid behind a bookshelf that was well within earshot. Oh, well. "The glasses thing wasn't so hard to figure out. You never look at anything straight. Plus, you bumped into multiple things while you were walking away from music room, which is not something people with clear vision do. So Yasuchika, what's the real reason you hate Hunny? Is it because people compare you two all the time?"

"That's not the only reason, but yes, it's part of it. Everybody at school acts like I should be just like him…but I don't want to be like him."

"I used to have a twin sister who was identical in appearance, but on the inside, we were very different people. so, I used to dye my hair, and then later dressed as differently as I could from her. And then, when she chose to wear contacts, I wore a pair of clunky glasses. I understand the need to be different from your siblings. But, I have to wonder if the reason you want to look different is because you don't _want_ to be like him versus not being like him, period. What's the other reason you're quarrelling with your brother?" Yasuchika then began his rant about Hunny being an alien. After that, it wasn't too hard to ascertain the root cause of Yasuchika's behavior. Although, I found it more than a little weird that a boy in junior high school would believe that his brother was an alien. "So you're afraid that if you act like Hunny in any way, shape, or form, that you'll become just like him, even though he scares a little bit?" He nodded. "Well, I don't know what to tell you besides that I don't think - no matter how hard you try - that you'll ever have Hunny's sweet tooth. I realize that siblings are sometimes a little hard to deal with, but family is often more about tolerance than love anyway. So, I think if you can work towards tolerating Hunny, you'll be on the right track. Otherwise, later in life, you may wish you had been nicer to him, wish you could take back some things you've said." I sucked in breath, because I had talked quite a bit more than I had planned to.

"Did Takashi put you up to this?"

I laughed. "I guarantee that I did this completely of my own accord, with my own selfish reasons."

"So beautiful. You're great at giving advice, Heather-senpai!" Satoshi had ended his hiding behind the bookcase, obviously having heard every word I said.

"Alright, then, I'm off. Have fun making up with your brother, Yasuchika."

* * *

When I got back from music club the next day, I came back to a changed - sort of - Yasuchika. I saw the birds floating around his face and I knew that there was a part of him that he suppressed, just as Hunny had suppressed _his_ true self. Well, no matter how blunt Satoshi was, I was sure that he would do whatever was right for Yasuchika.

After the fight, I found Mori sitting alone on the music room floor, looking very depressed. He must have felt terrible after failing to guess Hunny's next move, so I sat down next to him and tried to make him feel better after his miscalculation. Why was I all of a sudden the advice person, especially when I didn't have all that much wisdom when it came to anything, seeing as how I was a teenager. If this were some sort of cheesy coming of age story, Mori would have some old guy giving him excellent advice obtained by the old guy through years of experience. But, since this is a normal story, all he had was his girlfriend. "I wouldn't worry too much about earlier today, Mori. Yasuchika doesn't hate Hunny anymore - at least I don't think he does - and Hunny can tell. Both brothers are about as happy as two competitive brothers can be at this time in their lives."

"I realize this. But I should know Mitsukini better than that."

"I think you know Hunny about as well as anyone can. That says something." He hung his head. "Come on, let's go. You need to go home, and tonight, you're telling Satoshi and your parents that we're dating. After I help you with your English homework, of course."

"You're still willing to do that?"

"Of course. We agreed that I would come over a couple times a week."

He smiled and pulled me close as we walked towards the door to Music Room 3. "Satoshi told me that you gave Yasuchika advice, but that you did it for your own reasons."

"Mori, you're the type of guy who doesn't focus on more than one problem at a time. Therefore, I had to fix the problem between Hunny and Yasuchika before you would even consider focusing on our problems."

"He said that it was good advice. Did you and your sister fight a lot?"

"Amber and I did, yeah. Rosie, my littlest sister, teased me a lot, saying that I was a stick in the mud. But my older brother Cal was always nice to me. What Yasuchika doesn't get is that when someone's gone, you realize how stupid every fight between you was. Fights are transient, death is permanent. But, let's stop talking about the horribly morbid and depressing." I sighed dramatically, and Mori raised an eyebrow. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to ask you for a kiss today before we got to your house."

I had just barely finished my sentence before his lips were on mine and we were kissing quite passionately. However, our romantic minute was interrupted by someone opening the door to the Music Room. They would have most definitely seen us kissing. It was Satoshi.

For once, he seemed at a loss for words and just sort of stammered something about leaving his bag here earlier. He grabbed it and, red faced, rushed out of the room.

* * *

"Mori, you have to go and talk to him. You know damn well he's not going to listen to anyone else." He nodded and ran out after Satoshi.

I walked out after them slowly, not wanting to interrupt any conversation between the brothers. Why did Satoshi have to find out this way, and why didn't Mori tell him in the first place? Satoshi would never think he brother was in the wrong, and would be fine with his brother having a girlfriend. As I exited the school, they were standing there just before the school gates, arguing. Well, as much as they _could_ argue.

"Why didn't you tell me, Taka?"

"Only the host club was supposed to know that I was dating Heather."

"You didn't even tell mom and dad. We're your family, Taka, you can tell us."

Mori looked down, appearing to be ashamed. "I was scared of what they would think. Heather is not wealthy, nor is she among the elite who attend Ouran. If I were to marry her…" He thought about marrying me? My chest felt constricted and it was difficult for me to breathe. "It would not be the best thing for the business, and I think mother and father wouldn't want me to marry her."

"You want to marry her?"

"I've thought about it."

I slipped away for a few minutes to compose myself. I had not intended to hear that much of the conversation and I felt like I was intruding. No. I couldn't think about what Mori had just said. I needed to focus on letting his parents know we're dating. And getting them to like me.

A few minutes later, I walked up again and the brothers, who were silent, noticed me this time. "Should we go to your house, then?" Satoshi then thought it was an appropriate time to glomp me.

"Heather-chan, I had no idea that you were so close with Taka! I will make sure that mom and dad know how truly amazing you are, and how you helped Yasuchika and Mitsukini. Let's go!"

**Author's Note: I feel really bad for not updating, but my life's been hectic lately and I hope you guys can understand. And, if you can't, then I hope that you, if nothing else, continue to read my story. I promise to update more often now that summer's here. Weekly will be my goal, but I can guarantee that it will never be more than two weeks. Thank you and be sure to review!**


	26. Chapter 26

Sitting in front of Mori's straight-faced parents as he told them about our relationship is not one of top ten most fun things that has ever happened to me. Not even close. But, as awkward as it was, it was utterly necessary. Mori was stuttering and nervous, looking down at his feet as he explained, and I began to get an idea of just how nervous he was. Mori never stuttered. I couldn't let him stand there, squirming under their gaze. "I'm sorry we didn't tell you sooner."

"She's lovely, son." His father smiled, very slightly, in approval. "Although, I don't see how you thought you were being sneaky. I've known you were dating someone for a long time now."

"Akira! Why didn't you tell me," his mother exclaimed.

"I knew Takashi would tell us when he felt comfortable." Mori froze with shock. "Takashi, you were talking more and going mysterious places at night, around the time a date would occur. You're blushing half the time. And I even knew that you were dating Isenroff-san." Mori became even more surprised, by Mori standards. Meaning his eyes were a little wider and his mouth was hanging open by a fraction. "Oh, so you're even stunned by that? Well, as it were, you started acting unusually around the time when Heather came into your life. Of course, I understood immediately that this was no coincidence." He glanced over to his wife, who was still melting Mori under her gaze. "Oh, Kyoko, stop being so harsh. After all, they're just kids. You remember when we were dating? You're parents didn't approve at all: especially of my motorcycle."

"Akira!"

"Go off now and be kids." He waved goodbye and as Mori and I were walking away I could hear his mother shouting at his father.

"I was trying to be responsible, and then you have to bring up the motorcycle! You messed up the good parent bad parent act! We didn't get a chance to interrogate. Plus, we didn't give them the talk!"

"Oh they don't need it, they're good kids."

"We don't even know Heather, so you can't say that!"

"I called Tamaki's father and he says she had a perfect school record in America. I'm sure they won't be getting up to anything too inappropriate for teenagers. Kyoko, this is the part where we put our trust in Takashi, and his choice in girls. Besides he's had a few girlfriends in the past, and you weren't worried then."

"This is different!"

By then Mori and I had just walked out of earshot and he was chuckling. "I had no idea that my dad owned a motorcycle."

"Kyoya is going to kill us," I laughed. "He'll probably make your entire family sign an agreement to secrecy. Sorry. Back there, I felt like I threw you to the wolves."

"No. You were right. My family deserves to know that we're dating." He paused, as if hesitating, then continued. "Would your parents have liked me."

I had to think for a moment. "If you had had dinner with us, you probably would have witnessed a scene of chaos. My mother would have remarked at how skinny you are, insisting that you eat more. My father and brother probably would have glowered at you across the table."

"Why?"

"Because they were ridiculously overprotective. Sort of like Ranka is with Haruhi."

"Do you still miss your family?"

"Of course, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to live life. And, for the record, I think they all would have loved you." He smiled lightly and we were about to have what I hoped was a romantic moment, until Satoshi entered the room in his usual fashion.

"How'd it go?" He was practically bouncing with excitement and energy.

"We had nothing to worry about," Mori assured him with a pat on the head. "Thank you for being so understanding."

"No problem! I think it's good for Taka-nii to have a girlfriend."

My face fell a little as I remembered, again, that only Mori's family could know that we're dating. "Satoshi, you're going to have to keep this quiet. The fact that we're dating, that is."

"Why?"

I looked down, a little embarrassed. "Kyoya thinks that it would be bad for business if the customers knew that Mori had a girlfriend. And of course, Kyoya won't ever let anything bad happen to his business, so if you could please not tell anyone and ask your parents to do the same, it would be best for all involved."

"Of course, if that's what you want. It would be unchivalrous not to accept a lady's request!" He glanced at his watch. "Oh, I haven't trained yet today! Gotta go! Bye!" He zoomed off again and left Mori and together to study.

I felt myself growing warm as I sat in his room helping him, going over what he had said to Satoshi over and over again in my head. "Heather." I looked up from his answers that I was looking over, and he placed his hand on my forehead. "You're warm. Are you ill?"

"I'm fine, Mori." The last thing I wanted to do was embarrass him but I risked going insane just thinking about what he said. Besides, I hated keeping important stuff pent up inside of me. "I heard what you said to Satoshi earlier today." And, just to try and make with less awkward than it already was. "You only missed three answers on this one, you're improving." His face turned red, and he hung his head, self conscious about what I had heard. "I just want to know what you mean by it. You weren't planning on being one of those insane guys that proposes to a girl when they're both in high school, are you?"

He shook his head really fast. (It would have been comical if not for the serious situation.) "No. Whenever I think about my future, I always see you in it."

I sighed with relief. "So at what point do you see us married?"

"After we're out of college."

"Good." I sighed again, letting all my previous pent up tension out.

"I thought you would act differently."

I could hear the question in his voice so then it was my turn to look down, a little red. "To be honest, I don't see a future without you, either."

He began looking over the incorrect answers, trying to figure out what was wrong with them when he began to muse, "I know it bothers you that no one knows we're dating."

"Not as much as it used to, and as much as it kills me to say this, I understand why. It's not as if you don't want people to know we're dating because it's me. It could be any other girl and Kyoya would act the same way. For right now, I'm good."

* * *

The next day I was in my final period, cooking, which was very mixed due to general lack of interest. (For example: We had first years through third years and class A through class D.) Kasanoda scooted closer to me and asked me a very strange question. "You think that Takashi Morinozuka is scary right?"

"Why would I think that Mori is scary?"

"His face has got to be at least as scary as mine and yet he has so many friends and admirers! How does he do it?"

"His face isn't as scary as you think it is."

Nekozawa looked up from mixing frosting just long enough to say, "You two are letting our cinnamon rolls burn!"

I put on oven mitts and pulled the pan from the oven, and Kasanoda continued. "Do you think he'd have any tips?"

"Just smile, and if you want, I could introduce you to people."

"It won't work! You're not scary looking at all, so how could you possibly help me?"

"You're situation isn't quite as desperate as you think it is, so stop panicking. Look, if you want to know why people like Mori so much why don't you ask them?"

"You're friends with him, right? Why do you like him so much."

"Ummm," I grew a little red and sweat-dropped. "Well, he totes Hunny everywhere he goes and he's always considerate of people. Plus, he automatically knows when you're feeling down, and he just has this really calming presence. You don't feel like you have to talk or try too hard to make conversation…" Okay, I had to stop it there, otherwise he would get suspicious.

Fortunately for me, though, he was too busy taking notes to be suspicious. That, and he was looking at the paper and not my dreamy-eyed expression.

As I left cooking to go to my locker, I couldn't help but feel bad for my inability to offer Kasanoda any good advice. If Mori really did have a scary expression, I would ask him to help Kasanoda, but seeing as he wasn't scary at all, there was nothing he could do.


	27. Chapter 27

Walking to the host club from music club, I had no idea that I was in for a couple surprises when I entered the premises known as Music Room 3. One of the wonderful surprises involved Mori being dressed up as a samurai, while the other one was significantly less delightful. At first, when I walked in, the only thing amiss was the distinct lack of customers, which wasn't any great disappointment. Maybe Mori and I could go on a date tonight, I mused as I walked up to him to give a hug and quick peck on the lips. Unfortunately the moment was marred by an ill-disguised gasp coming from the last person I would expect to see in Music Room 3: Ritsu Kasanoda. I felt a slightly disgruntled look pass over my face. "Kasanoda-kun, what are you doing here?" I asked weakly. Kyoya was going to kill me. I had violated the single rule he had ever given me and now he was going to kill me. How had I not noticed his red hair when I walked in?

Kasanoda seemed to be in a state of absolute shock for some reason. "I didn't know you were dating Takashi Morinozuka," he replied lamely.

"Yeah…"

"So you two know each other?" Kyoya asked. I could see a trademark glint in his eyes that said I was going to meet an untimely death.

"Yeah…" I said again.

"Well," Kyoya threatened, "I hope you know him well enough to convince him to keep your relationship with Mori-senpai a secret. We wouldn't want your life to be endangered – by the fan girls, I mean." Damn it, I had forgotten about the fan girls. Kyoya wouldn't even need to get his hands dirty if he wanted me dead.

"Of course I'll keep it a secret!" said Kasanoda. And with that, he took out a mark and wrote "Heather's Secret Forever" on his arm.

"Uh, thanks Kasanoda-kun, but I would have taken your word for it; you didn't need to write it on your arm. Actually, I'm a little curious as to why you're here. I wasn't aware that you had, er, homosexual tendencies." This scene was just getting more awkward by the moment.

"What? No! I came here to ask Morinozuka a very important question. Morinozuka please tell me! How did you get to be the way you are? You have this tough look in your eyes that so expressionless, silent, and uncommunicative. With an expression like Cerberus, how can you be so well-liked? Please teach me your secret!"

Everyone else was in hysterics because of Kasanoda's speech, but I felt so bad for Mori. Kasanoda had a lot of things wrong. First of all, Mori's face did not resemble Cerberus in any way whatsoever. Second of all, Mori wasn't uncommunicative. While he wasn't the most talkative, his body language and subtle facial expressions always let you know what he was thinking. Overall, I believed it was an unfair assessment, and said as much. "Mori isn't scary at all. In fact, when I first met the host club, I was more afraid of Tamaki than I was of Mori."

"Heather, you aren't supposed to be this dense," began Hikaru.

"Think about it," said Kaoru. "When you first met Mori you didn't have corrective lenses and everyone knows that you're blind as a bat. His face was a giant blur to you."

"Also don't forget," added Hikaru. "You weren't afraid of even Kasanoda when you first saw him, so you're not exactly the go-to girl for an assessment on scary faces."

"Besides," they added simultaneously. "Anyone who received the welcome you did from Tamaki would be afraid of him. That doesn't make him scarier than Mori. Therefore, Bossa Nova, you can be Mori's apprentice!"

At this point, Tamaki and I were both pouting a little bit. "I was just being friendly because I think of Heather as a daughter!" he said defensively. "Now, I'm sure that Heather adores my means of affection."

He tried running over to me, in order to give me a hug. Luckily, a quick sidestep deterred him. "Mori still isn't scary," I muttered. "Hey Mori, seeing as club activities ended early, would you mind doing something tonight?" I asked. He quickly shook his head up and down, probably upset after the humiliation that Kasanoda put him through. "Okay, let's go." I grabbed his hand and we were out of there.

Once we were on our way to a beautiful garden I had heard about Mori gave me a grateful look and said, "Thanks."

"It's the least I could do. You certainly looked as if you needed rescuing," I said with a smile. "Could you do me a favor, though?" He nodded. "Don't be too icy with Kasanoda tomorrow. He never meant to embarrass you and he always has the best intentions at heart. Plus he's my partner in cooking class, and he's the best cook out of us, so I need him in a good mood seventh period," I added jokingly. Again, he nodded. "Don't take what he said too seriously, okay?" I placed my hand on his arm.

"Do I really have the face of Cerberus?"

"No!" I said quickly. "I meant what I said: you aren't scary whatsoever."

"He said I was silent and uncommunicative…"

"I don't mind the fact that you don't say a lot. Besides, you've been talking a lot more lately, which I also don't mind. Whether or not you actually speak, you always get your point across – just more subtly than most people. I can read your face and your body language to know what you're thinking." He smiled. "You're the epitome of awesomeness and the paragon of boyfriends."

By now we had arrived at the gardens, and because it was dark, they had small lights along the pathways and around the plants. It was beautiful and the perfect place to walk around with each other, if only for a short while.

Something suddenly occurred to Mori. "I forget to ask Mitsukini about this. I didn't ask him if it was alright, or if he wanted to come."

"Is that so horrible?" I asked tentatively.

"It's just the first time." We walked around for a little while longer before both of us had to go home for homework. "Oh, by the way: my English grade has come up significantly. Thank you for being such an excellent teacher."

"Just tell me if you ever need any more help." We kissed goodbye and I headed home.

* * *

The next day could have been called disastrous as best. Kasanoda took to following Mori around and successfully scaring away anybody who wanted to talk to Mori besides Hunny. When I got to the host club that day, the pleading look Mori gave me was enough to break my heart. However, he and Kasanoda both needed help right now, and as much as I hated to say it, Kasanoda needed it even more than Mori. I sat down next to him. "Bad day, huh?" I asked. He nodded glumly. I stared at Tamaki, Hikaru, and Kaoru taking of the Kasanoda project and happily reported, "Hey, you aren't in charge anymore, at least. However," I added. "I think that someone besides the three stooges should be in charge. They're going to make Kasanoda even scarier than he already was." Suddenly, I grin came onto my face. "I have an idea."

I walked over to the remaining female customers. "It's so tragic isn't it?" I fake-sobbed.

It piqued their interest. "What are you talking about, Heather?" they asked. The guests had all become accustomed to me, and were no longer intimidated by my occasional vacant stares, or the giant scars on my left arm.

"They scary boy with the red hair, of course," I answered. "Of course, I was instantly deterred by the human blizzard, just as anyone would." I was sure Kasanoda wouldn't mind a lie here or there, if it meant he could have friends. "Then, I was assigned to be his partner, along with Nekozawa," I stated as dramatically as possible. I had actually volunteered to be partners with them, but these two girls couldn't possibly know that.

They both gasped, "You poor thing!"

"At first I was terrified of curses or literally freezing to death, but what actually happened was so utterly surprising that you'd never believe it: they were both the nicest people on the planet." Both girls gasped again. "I was especially stunned when it came to Kasanoda over there. If you just ignore his menacing face, then you'll come to realize that he's a softie who loves kittens."

Both girls glanced at the Yankee with a newfound curiosity. My work was done. I sat down again next to Mori. "Make a boy seem tragic and most girls will go for him." I motioned towards the customers who were timidly shuffling towards the intimidating Kasanoda to talk to him.

I smirked a little at the incredulous look that Mori gave me. "Never underestimate the powers of a tragic story," I said smugly.

"I'm impressed," he stated simply. "But there's something else we need to worry about."

"What is it?" I asked.

"Someone has been trying to hurt Kasanoda-kohai." That make absolutely no sense to me. Who would want to hurt Kasanoda?

**Author's Note: There is no excuse for making everyone wait so long for the latest chapter and I'm really sorry. That is, if anyone is still reading this story. I'm also sorry that this is more of a filler than anything else.**


	28. Chapter 28

A very stern old woman – about eighty years old – sat in the chairman's office rapping her slightly long nails against her tough old leather purse. Her lips were thin and severe, threatening to yell at anyone who came between her and what she wanted. Even the chairman looked uncomfortable under her penetrating gaze.

"Why now?" he asked nervously, in decent English.

"She has attended this school long enough, I think," she replied, also speaking English. "I only allowed her to attend this school because she needed a good long break. But, it's time she returned to reality, and returned home."

"Couldn't this wait until the end of the year? She's made a lot of friends here, and withdrawing her this suddenly could be very upsetting."

"To be honest, Mr. Suoh, I don't value your parenting advice at all. I raised six children successfully, so I think I can handle a little over two more years of my moody, teenage granddaughter. She was never much trouble before. And anyway you seem to be fairly incompetent at raising one son with all the help in the world at your fingertips. You've played little to no role in his upbringing."

Under normal circumstances, Yuzuru Suoh would never have allowed anyone to speak to him in such a manner, but something about this woman spelled death for all those who opposed her will. "I was simply making a suggestion. When would you like to tell her?"

"Right now," she demanded. "The sooner she leaves Japan, the better off Heather will be. There is nothing for her here except painful memories. I live in Bozeman, which is a lovely city, where she will have plenty of opportunities. Plus, maybe if she leaves here, she will give up her silly composing dreams."

The look on the chairman's face, very clearly told her what he thought of her ideas, but he bit his tongue and personally escorted her to Heather's current class.

* * *

The last thing I expected that day was to see my grandmother arrive at my class. Haruhi, Hikaru, and Kaoru all stared at me, incredulously as I gathered my class things and went to the hall to talk to her. I was surprised my grandmother had bothered to even deliver any message personally.

"Why are you here?" I asked her. "I thought that you would let me spend at least a year here."

"You're coming home with me."

Before my experiences in Japan, I would have bowed to my grandmother's wishes without putting up an argument, letting myself be dragged anywhere. Now, however, I would fight with every ounce of strength that I had in me. "I don't want to go," I answered defiantly.

She raised an angry eyebrow at my response. "Well, young lady, I could care less about your opinions. You are a minor, and I am your guardian whether you like it or not. And don't even think about emancipation. Emancipation won't allow you to go to Japan any sooner," she warned. "Trust me; it would be better if you just left this place behind. Your parents should have, and look what happened to them."

I was stunned. First of all, for insulting my parents, and second of all for blaming them for their death. "Never speak about my parents in that way ever again," I growled.

"There are things you never knew about your parents, so don't you dare take that tone with me. If they hadn't gone to Japan, they would still be alive. It's as simple as that. You can't deny that fact. Now, we leave tonight for America. I expect you to grab your things and leave as soon as possible. It's easier if you don't say goodbye to your friends."

"Grandma, please –"

"No. We're leaving this godforsaken country."

All I could do was stare helplessly at my friends as my grandmother dragged me away.

* * *

Hikaru, Kaoru, and Haruhi could hardly believe their eyes as heather was dragged away by the old woman. After school, they decided to go to the chairman's office with the rest of the host club, apart from Mori. They saw no reason for him to worry about Heather needlessly, but if something were truly wrong then they would be sure to tell him right away.

"Dad, why was my glorious daughter dragged from class in such a manner? I need to know what has become of my delicate flower!" Who else but Tamaki would speak like this?

The chairman chose his next few words carefully. "Heather is going home."

"So she's at home with my father?" Haruhi asked.

"No. She is going home to America with her grandmother. I'm afraid she has no choice in the matter because her grandmother is her legal guardian."

"WHAT!?" came the incredulous outrage from all members of the host club.

"Believe me, I tried as best as I could, but there was no convincing her grandmother that practically kidnapping Heather wouldn't be good for her. I'm sorry." The chairman bowed his head in what almost appeared to be shame, at failing Tamaki and his friends and at failing Heather. "I'm sure that you can communicate with Heather through all of those social media websites that exist nowadays." Surely the old curmudgeon wouldn't begrudge Heather some correspondence with her friends.

However, at this moment, the host club was not pondering further communication with Heather; they were pondering how they would relay this heart-breaking news to Mori and Hani. Each member was already dealing with the grief of losing their good friend in their own way.

Tamaki was dead, his face blank the way it was when he felt true grief. Slow, gentle tears flowed down his cheeks as he envisioned a life without the American. Kyoya flushed red and buried his face in his book as he struggled not to show the hodgepodge of emotions playing in his mind. Hikaru and Kaoru clung to each other. Haruhi bemoaned the loss of her only female friend that knew her secret, and who had sheltered her from the insanity of all the other members of the host club.

All of these reactions combined were not enough to sum up the agony that Mori felt that afternoon as he approached music room 3 that afternoon with Honey. There was a sign that read "The Host Club Will Not Be Taking Any Appointments until Further Notice". Upon seeing this, Mori entered music room 3 to try and gauge what sort of disaster had befallen the hosts to prevent them from going about their regular business. What he witnessed looked like a funeral. Tamaki was still catatonic and every member looked as though they had been crying profusely.

"Takashi, what do you think happened?" questioned Honey.

"I don't know, Mitsukini," he answered. But he was about to find out.

Kyoya was the most composed, so he took it upon himself to give Mori the bad news. "Honey-senpai," and, after a long pause, "Mori-senpai, Heather has returned to Montana."

"What?" Mori could feel his chest slowly tightening as it became difficult to breathe and his face contort with pain as his heart contracted.

"Her grandmother came to get her and by all accounts has forced Heather to leave the country. There is no way to catch the plane before it leaves Tokyo and this time we won't be able to catch them in Montana, either. Heather's grandmother is her legal guardian and has every right to force Heather to live wherever she deems fit. There is nothing we can do but attempt to continue to speak with Heather through other means."

Mori's world was crashing down around him. No: his life was not over, but a sizeable chunk had just been hacked out of it, as if with a dull, slow knife with salt it. Heather was more than a friend; she was his better half; she was his guiding light at the end of the tunnel; his endgame; his planned future; she was everything that simply couldn't be anymore; everything that he couldn't have; everything he wished he could have; an absence of reality; a fantasy; a dream.

And, seemingly, she could never have been or would have been, anything more.

With that, Mori crashed down onto the floor just as his dream died. He could hear his friends shouting his name and he could see them scattering around him trying to make him responsive. Despite this, he couldn't register all that was going on around him, or the small trickle of blood that began to slowly flow down the side of his head and pool around him.

* * *

Mori woke up in the hospital and was perfectly fine, with only an order to take a day off of school and avoid physically exerting himself for the next week.

That day, when he arrived back at his house he tried to find Heather on Facebook, as he had friended her, but it appeared as if her account was either deleted or she had somehow blocked him. The same could be said of her Skype account. Since coming home he had tried texting her multiple times and kept telling himself that maybe she was simply asleep, due to the time difference between Montana and Tokyo. However, he googled the time difference between the two, did the math and it was a perfectly reasonable time in Montana. She should have texted him back by now.

He sat, without moving, in a chair all day staring at the phone. Finally, he was shaken out of his trance by Satoshi. "Takashi, have you been here all day?" he asked. Mori gave an affirmative grunt. "Can I get you anything?" Satoshi seemed determined to please and desperate to prevent his older brother from going off the deep end. Mori shook his head and stared at the clock which now read twelve o'clock midnight. He had waited more than twelve hours for a response from Heather.

Now he dialed her number, which he had memorized, and awaited the obligatory ringing on the other end, but received none. Instead, he received a depressing automated voice say: We're sorry, the number you have dialed has been disconnected. Please hang up the phone and try again, or try a different number; thank you. It may as well have been a eulogy.

Heather had simply vanished off the face of the earth, leaving no traces. All Mori could think of was the pain in his heart of knowing that Heather's grandmother had just mutilated his dream.

**Author's Note: Not especially long, but we are coming down to the final leg of the race – only a two or three chapters left. I'm not entirely sure if I'm going to do an epilogue. However, I guarantee the next chapter will be as equally depressing as this one.**


	29. Chapter 29

It had been many long years since my departure from Tokyo, Japan and I had had more than enough time to ponder my time there. Every single wonderful day of it. My last two years of high school had been spent entirely cut off from Japan. It may be hard to believe, but my grandmother was the most terrible type of warden imaginable. I was completely cut off from anything Japanese and only allowed to socialize with the kids who were currently living at my school and they were nice enough, but they weren't the host club and the host club could never be replaced in my heart.

Now, I was staring at the mail in front of me: my response from Julliard, whose application I had somehow managed to keep secret from my grandmother. The barest of smiles cracked onto my face as I stared at the acceptation letter. It wasn't a full ride scholarship, true, but it was enough that I could attend and not have too much debt by the time my education was over.

As my life was changing, I had to decide whether or not to try and contact my friends when I went to college. They hadn't heard from me in two years and when I thought of all the pain and hurt that I must have put them through, I decided that I couldn't go through with it. It was best that I didn't try to poison the clean break that I had been forced to accept. Maybe one day I would go back to Japan, but I would never see them all again.

* * *

**Ten Years Later**

I was in Tokyo again. Although, this time it was under completely different circumstances than it had been before. This time, I was attending the first concert in Japan that was performing any of my works. Although my work had earned a positive response in the U.S. and in some parts of Europe this was the first time that it had been in an Asian nation, and it was terrifying.

I sat in the front row, fidgeting the entire time, as my collection of pieces that had become officially known as "People of Tokyo" was being played on the stage. With each new song, I saw their faces in the music. The King, The Shadow, The Rabbit, The Intertwined Serpents, The Common Man, and last but not least The Knight were all the works exhibited that night. I was glad when it was finally over. All I had to do now was give a short little speech.

I stumbled twice on my dress and heels as I headed up to the mike. "Well," I said. "My music might be good enough to be played by this orchestra, but that doesn't seem to have improved my sense of balance." A few generous chuckles in the audience could be heard. "I feel very privileged to be here in this hall tonight because Tokyo really is a very special city for me and it was when I was staying here that I met some of the most fantastic people I have every had the pleasure of knowing. It is these individuals who inspired the music that you have just heard and continue to inspire my life in too many ways to list. Thank you so much for coming tonight, for playing my music, and I hope that you enjoyed listening."

Unfortunately, it wasn't quite over. There was a short after party in the foyer and I was expected to attend. I was never really any good with social gatherings so was I was hoping I could slip out early and avoid embarrassing myself. Fortunately for me, though, there were refreshments. Alcoholic refreshments. Alcoholic refreshments which I happily downed.

After the first two drinks I heard someone address me in a way I had never expected to be called ever again: "Heza-chan!"

I whipped my head around to see the entire host club – plus a few women I had never met – attending the after party at my concert. "What are you all doing here?"

"You didn't think you could escape us, did you?" asked Tamaki, his eyes sparkling with the same old fervor that he always possessed. "After all, you are my 'daughter'."

"I see you've calmed down quite a bit." I was trying to choke back tears. This reunion was quite a bit more painful than even I had anticipated.

"Twelve years tends to do that to a person. I'm thirty now and manage my family's business." Despite his supposed maturity, a little bit of the old Tamaki managed to slip through the cracks. "Haruhi and I are married now. Oh, Heather-chan we have so much that we need to catch up on! Let me show you pictures of our kids!" He pulled out his wallet, and I had to admit: their kids _were_ pretty cute.

"We both manage our mother's fashion line now," said the twins.

"I run my own business now," said the shadow king.

Introductions continued on in this way for the better part of an hour. We were all catching up on each other's lives and careers. Introductions to the wives were interesting. But there was one person that I truly had to deal with tonight. One person who deserved an explanation more than anyone else in the room. Finally, Kyoya realized that Mori and I had even more catching up to do and thankfully helped me out of the difficult situation.

"Heather probably has a terrible headache. She hasn't been to Japan in twelve years and the sudden switch from English to Japanese could very well have caused some discomfort. Let's all swap numbers and agree to a date to meet up together and get to know each other all over again."

I whispered "thank you" to him as the others all dissipated, leaving only Mori and I. It was ten times more awkward. The others had accepted me back into their ranks, no questions asked. But, I surmised that this situation would be significantly more difficult.

For once, Mori was the first to speak. "You look drunk. You should eat something."We went over to the small table holding only a couple very small options for eating. "This won't do; there isn't enough food. How much did you have to drink?"

"Two drinks, but I haven't eaten anything all day. I was worried I would somehow run into you all."

"We should go someplace else. Is fast food alright with you?"

"I'm American, Mori. That should answer your question more than sufficiently." Even now, twelve years later, just saying his name sent my heart stuttering.

We sat down in the poorly lit fast food joint, looking terribly out of place in a tux and expensive dress. "You are doing very well. I always knew that your music would take you places," he said awkwardly.

"What are you doing now?"

"I'm a lawyer, actually. I really enjoy the work, although there is a lot of it."

"I don't have to coax you as much to speak so openly, anymore."

"You know I've only ever been that way around you."

"Even now?" I found it very difficult to believe that I could possibly still be that special to him.

"Some of us don't let go to people so easily. Why didn't you try to contact us, Heather? The others may forgive you, but I think that I deserve an explanation."

"I don't think I've ever heard you say so much in your entire life," I said, trying to lighten the mood. It didn't work, because Mori was still staring at me, expecting me to give him an answer. I sighed and prepared for a long spiel. "I was afraid of three things. First, I was afraid that you wouldn't forgive me after not talking to you in two years, although it wasn't by choice. Second, I was afraid that I would just open old wounds by talking to you guys. I feel terrible right now. All the old wounds are just bleeding all over the place and it hurts so much. Ten years ago, I decided that a clean break was best for all involved. Third, I was afraid that my grandmother may have been right. She may not have been right in taking me from Ouran in the way that she did, but I think she was right when she said that I needed to leave Japan. I needed to make a life for myself that I built alone, and without you saving me all the time." I left my speech there and we ate the rest of the meal in silence.

I was about to get up and leave, believing that Mori didn't want me there, when he grabbed my hand. "I forgive you, Heather. Please stay."

I sat down slowly, not knowing how much more we could say to each other. "Anything else interesting in your life? How is Satoshi?"

"He got married last year. She is a really nice girl and their trying to have a child."

"That's great, but what about you? I mean, Tamaki and Haruhi already have children, and most of the others have wives or girlfriends."

"There's no one special like that in my life."

"Please tell me you did at least date after I left." I really didn't want to feel like I had made his life absolutely miserable.

"I dated a few girls. And you?"

"I dated a few boys."

His face became a little agitated. It was funny how I could still pick up on the most minute changes in his face. "Is there anyone special for you?"

"No."

His face perked up just the tiniest bit. "How long are you going to be in Tokyo?"

"I have a ticket to leave tomorrow." I saw his face fall, and this time it would have been perceptible to anyone in the room. "For old times sake, you could chase me down at the airport if you want. Can you think of a reason or two for me to stay in Tokyo?"

"I can think of two."

"Please elaborate, Mr. Morinozuka."

"Well, first of all, I think you need to reconnect with the host club…and me." We sat in companionable silence for another few minutes. "May I kiss you?"

I nodded and we both leaned in for the kiss and I realized that I hadn't forgotten a single detail about his lips. "You make an excellent case. I suppose I'll have to have all of my belongings shipped over."

As we headed out of the restaurant for him to walk me to my hotel, he leaned down – tall as ever – to whisper in my ear "I don't think I ever stopped loving you for a minute."

"I don't think I ever stopped loving you. Do you think we can move past the twelve years I was gone? I know that it may be hard but - "

"Yes." He slipped his hand in mine and kissed me on the forehead. "I'll call you in the morning, if you can promise that you'll still be here."

"Japan is where I belong. I don't ever intend to leave again: Japan or you."

"Thank you," he whispered.

**A/N: Alright, so I was thinking of maybe having one more epilogue chapter, but only if you ask nicely :)**


	30. Epilogue

I would never get used to the elegant parties thrown by the aristocracy; I had come to accept this. I stood staring at one of the many elegant ballrooms of Ouran, scarcely believing I had ever attended this school, somewhat happy that I had decided not to settle down in Tokyo. Hokkaido, as it turned out, was a much better fit, although I still visited Tokyo fairly often – especially for work. There were many parts of the region that reminded me of my home in the U.S. As was the norm at these sorts of events, Haruhi and I clung to each other and made every attempt to hide. Usually, though, the other former members of the host club managed to find us.

Tonight's party was made even worse by the fact that I would have to give a speech, considering Mori and I were throwing the party.

Haruhi and I found music room three and the doors were thankfully unlocked. Unfortunately for us, the rest of the host club was there. "I assumed you would be here," mused Kyoya with a smirk. No amount of aging – not even fifteen years' worth – would change his calculating nature. "You realize that you cannot hide forever from public speaking."

"I understand that it is for an important cause, but I wish donations to Ouran's music club did not require a speech. Besides, I think Ishiyama might be here and I would like to avoid her if at all possible. She's going to start going on about inviting her to all the glamorous parties composers are invited to attend."

"We'll be sure to tell her you're here," assured Hikaru. His smirk almost mirrored Kyoya's with its almost sadistic qualities.

"For the time being let's all enjoy the wonderful memories adorning this wonderful room!" enthused Tamaki. Fifteen years had done little to change him, either. In fact, for the most part, the host club had remained just as I had remembered it when I left Japan.

"By wonderful memories do you mean the fact that you made me dress up as a boy and flirt with girls to pay a debt?" asked Haruhi.

"Or how hard I had to work to pull off all of your completely impractical themes?"

"We had to pretend to be in love with each other," the twins reminded Tamaki simultaneously.

"I embarrassed my family in order to join the club," remarked Honey, who still hadn't grown any taller.

"And I had to watch as hordes of girls flirted with my boyfriend," I said. Mori showed his agreement with a nod.

"Alright, so some of you had to make sacrifices," Tamaki began dramatically. "But in the end, wasn't it all worth it? We became friends through this club, and I was always under the impression that you all had a lot of fun, despite the drawbacks. We gave a lot to the girls of this school and I would like to think that they are all better off for it." He glanced at a clock on the wall. "Heather, I think it is about time for you to give your speech."

"Make it good. None of us want to make a donation," said Hikaru. I couldn't tell whether or not he was joking.

Slowly, we made our way back to the ballroom and I made my way onto the stage. Before I began my speech, I looked into the crowd and saw many of my former classmates. Kasanoda, Nekozawa, Renge, and a whole host of others who I had held dear to my heart. (Not so much Renge.)

I began my speech. "I know most people would come up onto the stage and give a speech about how much the music club changed their lives and stuff like that and I'm afraid to say that I'm no different. Being in the music club meant that I was allowed to go to Ouran High School on scholarship and that opportunity really did change my life. I had just experienced the single most horrific event of my life, and my life was in pieces. When I came here to Ouran, I managed to pull myself back together and start over. I really needed that. Regardless of my reasons for coming to Ouran, the days I spent here were some of the happiest of my life and I really hope that others may experience the same magic that I experienced here. So, I'm afraid that takes money and money is something that all of you have. So, if some of you would be willing to make donations before you go, it would be wonderful. Thank you all for coming."

"Hold it right there, Heather Isenroff!" Tamaki shouted as he scrambled onto the stage, nearly pushing me off of it in the process. "I have a very important announcement for everyone here. Although they haven't announced it yet, Heather Isenroff and Takashi Morinozuka are in fact, engaged. So, while you're making your donations, please give them their congratulations on the way out."

As he and I walked off the stage I muttered "What part of keep the engagement quiet didn't you understand?"

"You are my daughter – honorary daughter at least – and you and Mori are my friends. I want everyone here to know how happy I am for you."

I was happy, too, but that didn't mean the whole world had to know.

As people were giving donations and congratulations on the way out, Mori settled in next to me and took hold of my hand. It was what I needed to get through the night.

We decided to walk back to the hotel that night due to my distaste for limos. That was another aspect of the lives of aristocracy that I would never quite get used to. "Well, it took us fifteen years, but it's finally happening. We're getting married." Mori may have looked stone-faced, but I could see that he was overflowing with emotion.

"You did once say that you couldn't see yourself ending up with anyone else."

"And what about you?"

"I knew that no matter what happened or who I ended up with, I would always be comparing them to you and to be honest, they would never measure up."

He smiled and that was enough for us. We weren't going to have any grand ceremony, unlike the rest of the aristocracy. It would just be our families and the host club attending the ceremony. During the ceremony, Mori's song that I had written about him would be playing because it was the closest thing to a love song that we had.

I still couldn't believe that in a matter of months I would be Mrs. Morinozuka. Sometimes, it would seem, dreams don't have to end, as long as you're willing to wait long enough.

**There you go. An epilogue and thank you all for reading and putting up with ridiculously long waits for updates. You've all been fantastic.**


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